CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Cleveland Metroparks is adrift off of Cleveland's East Side beaches.

The park system recently banned visitors to Euclid Beach and the adjoining sands from touching the water.

Then, on Saturday, when a father refused to forbid his 6-year-old daughter from getting her legs wet, Metroparks rangers put dad in handcuffs and wrote him two tickets.

I know this sounds unbelievable, but it's true. Even the Metroparks says it's so.

The new policy and its clumsy enforcement is sparking protest and questions about the Cleveland Metroparks, which took over the management of the city's lakefront properties from the state in June 2013.

News of the new policy and the ticket spread this week among neighborhood residents and activists. Some residents, upset by the policy change, plan to complain Thursday during the Metroparks' board of commissioners meeting. The commissioners are scheduled to vote Thursday on the swimming policy at Euclid Beach.

I have written several columns about Euclid Beach and the adjacent Villa Angela and Wildwood parks, which for years have been without lifeguards. Earlier this year, residents and city officials complained that the Metroparks was not recruiting lifeguards for this summer's beach season at Euclid beach while recruiting lifeguards for other beaches.

The Metroparks defended the decision at the time, explaining that East Side shoreline studies showed the beaches there were too dangerous for swimming. Safety, the park system said, is its top priority.

In April, the Metroparks did an about-face and started recruiting lifeguards for Euclid Beach. The park system said a small portion of the beach was suitable for swimming.

But in May, while placing markers in the water designating the new swimming area, Metroparks managers said divers discovered debris - including jagged scrap metal, rocks and discarded brick masonry -- that rendered the water too dangerous for swimming.

The Metroparks then applied for a permit with Army Corps of Engineers, which regulates the shoreline, to use equipment to clean the area. The park system is still waiting for approval.

The Metroparks also did something that caught many locals by surprise: It banned swimming altogether at Euclid Beach and the adjoining parks.

When the state managed the beaches along the shoreline, it placed lifeguards at Euclid Beach. The state eventually pulled the lifeguards, largely due to budget issues. But the state allowed visitors in some areas to swim at their own risk.

Under the Metroparks' new no-swimming designation, "swimming or body contact with water is not permitted," according to parks system's regulations.

Does that mean no wading into the water, filling pails or splashing along the water's edge? Can such a policy be enforced? What happens when hundreds of people hit the beach on a hot weekend?

We got some of the answers Saturday, when Bill Carroll, who lives in the North Collinwood neighborhood, sat on a log at Villa Angela beach around 5 p.m. as his daughter waded calf deep into the water with the legs of her tiny jeans rolled up.

That's when a Metroparks ranger approached Carroll and asked him to remove his daughter from the water. The ranger cited the new no-swimming policy, which the Metroparks signaled on May 29 with new signs along the beach.

Carroll refused, arguing that his daughter wasn't doing anything close to swimming. Carroll said he would accept a ticket for a swimming violation, so he could contest it later, but he had no intention of stopping his daughter from splashing around in the water.

The ranger left and returned with a second ranger, Carroll told me Tuesday. Carroll said the rangers asked him for identification, which he didn't have because he walked from his nearby home. The rangers demanded Carroll's Social Security number, which he initially refused to provide. One ranger then handcuffed Carroll and walked him to the Euclid Beach parking lot while the other ranger walked Carroll's daughter away from the water and explained to her why the lakefront is dangerous. Carroll told me he ultimately gave the rangers his Social Security number to avoid being arrested and separated from his daughter. He said he received two tickets, one for swimming and one for failing to comply with an order.

I asked the Metroparks about the incident between Carroll and the rangers and why rangers cited Carroll for swimming when his daughter was only wading and the policy prohibiting swimming has not yet been formally approved.

Spokeswoman Sanaa Julien said that rangers planned to "educate" the public about the policy last weekend, not ticket anyone. She said Carroll's refusal to cooperate forced the rangers to ticket him. She said the rangers reported that Carroll's daughter was thigh-deep in the water.

Julien also said the rangers have the right to enforce rules still under consideration by the board of commissioners in situations where public safety is at risk. She said Metroparks CEO Brian Zimmerman designated the beach area a safety hazard after the park system discovered the debris, clearing the way for immediate enforcement.

Julien also defended the park system's declaration that beachgoers must have no contact with the water, arguing that potentially rusty metal could be present even a few inches below the surface. She also said people can't wade into the water because shoreline depths could drop within feet of the shore.

"When we discovered the debris (in May), we couldn't allow people to go in the water knowing that," she said.

For many residents of North Collinwood, Euclid Beach and the adjacent lakefront are the reasons they have stayed in the East Side neighborhood along Lake Erie.

Carroll has lived in the neighborhood for 14 years. He built an addition on his house rather than leave for better housing and the amenities of the suburbs. He and his family have regularly enjoyed their lakefront without incident, which is why he is so incredulous.

"We love the water but now we can't touch it," Carroll said, sounding exasperated in a phone interview Tuesday.

Carroll said he supported the Metroparks' takeover of the beaches and its recent tax increase.

"But now we are paying more for less," he said, complaining that he believes the West Side's Edgewater Park is getting preferential treatment by the Metroparks.

Frustration by East Side residents is understandable and something the Metroparks needs to address in some way other than with handcuffs.

UPDATE: On late Wednesday afternoon, the Metroparks provided a copy of the incident report. The report was not completed until after the story was posted. The report confirms the major points of Carroll's story but portrays his actions as aggressive compared to Carroll's version. The rangers reported that Carroll "showed every indication of potentially becoming physically combative." Here is the report.