A new view of some of the bad behavior that prompted an emergency order at the Jersey Shore at the start of the summer season.
Since Memorial Day weekend, Wildwood has made a number of changes to help keep the peace and officials say they're working.
We have a close up look at the chaos from the inside.
For the first time, we're seeing these new images from Wildwood Police body cameras and surveillance video showing some of the Memorial Day weekend mayhem involving teens and young adults on the boardwalk that led to a temporary state of emergency.
Police were clearly far outnumbered by the huge crowds that night. The unruly behavior late on Saturday ultimately led to cops shutting down the boardwalk for several hours.
“The police were prepared but when you have hoards of 200 and 300 kids and more in a pack, nobody’s prepared for that," Wildwood Mayor Ernie Troiano Jr. said.
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Wildwood's mayor says that since Memorial Day weekend, the city's police department has gotten assistance from a dozen New Jersey State Troopers plus officers from the Cape May County Sheriff's Department.
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The city also issued a night-time backpack ban on the boardwalk and a 10 p.m. curfew.
“Each officer has an assigned post and they go right down the boardwalk and they move all those people off," Troiano Jr. said.
When asked about how residents and visitors may be worried about something similar happening over the July 4 weekend, Troiano Jr. insisted that everyone will be protected.
"I'm gonna tell you we are extremely safe. We are extremely proactive in making sure that everyone is protected," he said.
The mayor also says the majority of people coming to town now are families, not large groups of teens. He says those families “know how to act.”
