Since 2016 the City of Gulf Shores has banned alcohol on the beach and this year appears to have the same restrictions. The city, at the recommendation of the police department, banned alcohol on the beach during spring break for the first time on March 18, 2016, after unruly crowds gathered on the beach during the first few days of spring break.

“During the first several days of spring break 2016, GSPD encountered numerous issues with large groups of breakers binge-drinking, using illegal narcotics, and creating a dangerous atmosphere for themselves and other visitors,” Police Chief Ed Delmore wrote in a memo to the council in January of 2023. “The potential for large-scale confrontations with police officers existed in a very real way.”

Delmore said the ban was an instant success and has worked extremely well in each of the following years.

“Following the ban, dramatic improvements on our beach occurred immediately,” Delmore wrote. “This positive change continued throughout the remainder of spring break that year and in all subsequent years to date.”

During one near melee in 2016, a Gulf Shores police cruiser was hit by a spring breaker throwing a football and a video was posted to YouTube.

The proposed resolution the City Council will consider reads:

"That during Spring Break 2024, hereby designated as March 1, 2024 through April 28, 2024, it shall be unlawful for any person to possess or consume any alcoholic beverage on the sand of any portion of the beach project area lying east of the eastern boundary of the Bon Secour Wildlife Refuge, west of the western boundary of Gulf State Park, and seaward of the line of sand stabilization fencing installed by the City as part of the beach projects established on the Gulf front beaches within the corporate limits of the City of Gulf Shores. "