Security amped up at Chicago beaches on Memorial Day

FOX 32 NEWS - Chicago police stepped up security at North Side beaches Monday to prevent another Memorial Day melee.  Last year saw a number of fights.

This Memorial Day, police were walking around, checking bags and watching over the crowd. One of the issues last year was litter, and according to the Chicago Fire Department, a number of people got hurt by trash on the beach again this year.

"A lot of patrol officers out here and everything like that, so not too much gonna happen, nobody gonna think about doing too much,” said beach-goer Argia Collins.

That allowed Argia and his 3-year-old Amari some quality father-son time at North Avenue Beach. Same can be said for Elsa and Alexis Orozco.

"We're here and we're gonna enjoy a bike ride now,” mom Elsa Orozco said.

But Orozco felt nervous walking up, seeing all the people.

"And then when we were walking here, you saw a lot of groups of people. It was a little intimidating I have to say,” Orozco said.

Last memorial day, fights broke out on North Avenue Beach with people using bottles and coolers as weapons. Innocent beach-goers got cut-up by the litter left behind.

A group of girls FOX 32 spoke to didn't have any issues today and stayed long enough to get a sunburn.

“It kind of makes you feel a little bit safer that there's this many here and there's big groups of people and there's not a lot of cops, you think things can get out of hand,” said Amy Konjevich.

"It was pretty decent this year, everybody just got a long, not a lot of fights. Everybody just got along and just partied together,” said Jessica Padilla.

Millions of dollars are spent every year cleaning up litter at Chicago beaches.