A popular Florida spring break destination is finished hosting hordes of college students each year, according to the town’s top law enforcement official. 

“Panama City Beach can no longer be a Spring Break town,” Panama City Police Chief J.R. Talamantez said on the department’s Facebook page Sunday. “That time is over. Every year we try to manage it, and every year it brings more challenges. I’m not willing to risk the safety of our city to hold onto something that no longer works.”

In the coming weeks, Talamantez said, police will have “serious discussions” with stakeholders in city leadership roles “about the future of the Spring Break season.”

College students on spring break in Panama City Beach, Fla., March 12, 2025. (Kat Ramirez for Fox News Digital)

For several years, the police department has used various strategies to deter spring break crime. 

In 2023, police deployed K-9s to combat drug use and leaned on surveillance cameras in an attempt to keep revelers under control. 

In 2022, police arrested more than 160 people during a spring break incident when hundreds trashed a Walmart. They seized 75 guns from that case alone. 

“The crowd that has been here this weekend, there is no words that can describe the way they have behaved themselves, conducted themselves, and the amount of laws they have broken,” Talamantez said at the time. 

That same year, spring breakers were so raucous police closed two miles of city streets.

 Fox News Digital reached out to the Panama City Beach Police Department.