ORLANDO, Fla. — Backstreet Boys singer Brian Littrell says a local Florida sheriff’s office isn’t doing enough to protect his multimillion-dollar beachfront property from trespassers and is asking a judge for an order commanding deputies to do so.

The petition filed by Littrell’s company in a Florida Panhandle county touches on a perennial tug-of-war between usually-wealthy oceanfront property owners and beach-loving members of the public, especially in Florida, which has 825 miles of sandy beaches.

Under Florida law, any sand on a beach below the high tide water mark is public. Many homeowners own the sand down to the average high-water line, though some counties over the decades have passed local ordinances that let the public use otherwise private beaches for sunbathing, fishing and walking if people have historically had access for those purposes.

Property records show that Littrell’s company purchased the property in Santa Rosa Beach in 2023 for $3.8 million.

A spokeswoman for the Walton County Sheriff’s Office said that the office doesn’t comment on pending litigation.

“The Walton County Sheriff’s Office prides itself on handling every situation, call for service, or interaction with professionalism using a customer service approach,” public information officer Lindsey Darby said in an email. “This has always been our philosophy and will remain so moving forward.”

In the petition, Littrell’s company said that chairs, umbrellas and small tables had been put out on the beach, as well as “No Trespassing” signs, to mark it as private property. But that effort had been in vain “as numerous trespassers have set out to antagonize, bully, and harass the Littrell family by regularly, every day, trespassing,” according to the petition.

The sheriff’s office has refused requests to remove trespassers or charge them, and the family has had to hire private security, the petition said.