Voters on Tuesday will decide whether to make a one-year trial ban on alcohol at San Diego's beaches and coastal parks permanent.

Proposition D, placed on the ballot by the City Council in July, would make the consumption of alcohol unlawful at all city beaches, Mission Bay Park and other coastal recreation areas.

Councilman Kevin Faulconer, who represents the beach areas, spearheaded the one-year trial ban on alcohol at San Diego's beaches and coastal parks following a Labor Day melee in Pacific Beach.

More than a dozen people were arrested during the fracas for throwing beer cans at police clad in riot gear.

In response, the council enacted a temporary ban on alcohol at city beaches in November. The prohibition is set to expire Jan. 14 if voters don't adopt Proposition D.

Proponents of the ban argue it has made the beaches safer.

"Since the City Council banned alcohol at the beach for a one-year trial period there has been a dramatic change," according to the group SafeBeachesSanDiego.org.

"Families with small children have returned to the beach, no longer afraid their fun will be spoiled and their personal safety threatened by belligerent, out-of-control drunks," the group wrote.

Their position is backed up by a recent police report that found alcohol-related crimes overall dropped this year in San Diego's beach areas following the implementation of the booze ban.

There were 3,438 alcohol-related citations given in 2007, compared to 2,855 so far this year, a decline of nearly 17 percent, according to a report presented to the Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee.

Opponents argue that a number of factors contributed to a decline in crime in the beach areas, notably a lack of visitors.

"I can appreciate the fact the police want to present statistics such that crime is always going down," said Jacob Pyle, with the group FreePB.org. "However, a decrease in community visitors with a corresponding drop in crime does not make my community safer."

Pyle said the city is on pace to have almost 4 million fewer visitors to its beaches this year.

"How does this huge decrease in tourism visitor population to our beaches affect the numbers presented?" Pyle asked. "Fewer people should equal fewer incidents."

Attempts to prohibit drinking at city beaches has failed twice in the past. There was a thwarted attempted to ban booze at the beach in 1991. In 2002, voters narrowly rejected a proposition to prohibit alcohol at the beach.