WATCH: Moriarty, Hutchison, Miller laws could hold NJ parents accountable for teens involved with unruly crowds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7j0I5qAIAOE

By Ted Greenberg and Emily Rose Grassi, NBC10

The Garden State is turning up the heat on parents to help prevent unruly behavior by teenagers.

It's been an ongoing problem that has played out in the past few years in several beach towns and other communities.

Two bills were signed into law this week by Gov. Phil Murphy that build on prior efforts to crack down on the type of disruptive and violent antics seen in towns throughout the state.

"I think it's smart to try and, like, kind of corral this issue a little bit, because it's definitely gotten worse as I've gotten older," Ocean City resident Madelyn Adamson said. "Making sure the parents kind of control their kids a little more is probably the way to go."

One of the laws aims to hold parents and guardians more accountable by imposing consequences on them.

Any adults who have shown neglect or disregard for supervising their kids who incite public brawls could be charged with a disorderly persons offense.

The grown-ups could also get fined $1,000 for unruly behavior by teens that leads to property damage.

A second law requires the state Attorney General to create a crowd management training program for police in areas hit by more than one pop-up party or flash mob in the past year.

While public safety is at the heart of the new laws, officials say there’s an economic aspect to all of this as well, especially in shore towns that are highly dependent on tourism.

"A Memorial Day weekend public brawl that's all over the news? People don't want to come down the shore the next weekend and that hurts all kinds of small business, large business," NJ Senator Paul Moriarty said.