Sign up for our COVID-19 newsletter to stay up-to-date on the latest coronavirus news throughout New York City

In recent weeks, Hamptons Police have stepped up enforcement of both the Hamptons ID law and the Stipulated Funding Requirement law and have begun rounding up noncompliant individuals and sending them back across the Shinnecock Canal.

The Hamptons ID law requires that residents of the Hamptons (understood as all points east of the canal) carry photo identification identifying themselves as such, and the Stipulated Funding Requirement law mandates that every man, woman and child visiting the Hamptons should have at least $300 in cash on his or her person at all times.

Hamptons Police are under orders to remove all individuals who are unable to comply with at least one of these laws. Over this past weekend, the police reported finding 369 people who were in violation according to this standard, and delivered these to staging areas located around the Hamptons where they were placed on buses and driven to the highway rest area west of the canal.

While the majority of the noncompliant individuals were visitors with inadequate cash flow, there were at least 72 among the noncompliant who are apparently residents of the Hamptons who had yet to apply for the Hamptons ID to prove their legal status.

Hamptons PD spokesman Larry Hirsch admitted that the police actions are somewhat harsh, but called them a stopgap. “Personally, I think we would be better served by building an impenetrable structure along the canal and stopping the bad apples before they get in,” he told reporters. “In the meantime, while it’s a messy business, people can be assured that we’re doing our best to keep our streets clean of riffraff.”

Read more tales from the Hamptons Police Blotter