Downtown, city at odds on dealing with after-hour disturbances

Downtown businesses and the city have reached an impasse on how to deal with after-hours disturbances that have triggered extra police patrols in recent months.

The biggest sticking point is who will pay the tab. The Downtown Partnership, a group of about 200 businesses, doesn't want to pay.

"Downtown is a dense area, and if it requires more policing, it requires more policing," said the partnership's executive director Beth Kosley.

"After a lot of thought and consideration, it didn't seem appropriate, it didn't seem equitable and it didn't seem it would get at the root of the problem," she said, referring to payments by downtown businesses to fund increased police patrols.

City officials were to outline a strategy for the City Council on Tuesday for how to cope with hundreds of milling bar patrons who flood downtown streets at 2 a.m. on weekends.

But City Manager Penny Culbreth-Graft told the council at its informal meeting Monday that it could be months before something is worked out.

City officials said some problems stemmed from bargoers waiting for clubs to lock up liquor before reopening for after-hours events. State law prohibits the sale of liquor after 2 a.m.

Tactics previously under discussion included bar owners funding off-duty officers, prohibiting after-hours clubs and installing more video cameras.

A chief question now is how extra patrols will be managed.

"The city is working on some other options," Culbreth-Graft said. "Some of the things that we previously discussed need to be revisited. We are hoping to come back with long-term fixes, and we clearly don't have agreement yet."

Police Chief Richard Myers told The Gazette that it's not normal to charge residents or business owners extra money for extra attention.
He cited the housing projects in Chicago, historically a snarl of crime, as an example.

"You don't charge people who live there extra to police there," he said. "So I understand both sides of the issue, and I'm sensitive to both sides of the issue. But the reality is, we have to sustain a police strategy down there and not at the expense of the rest of the town."

In recent months, up to 20 officers have swarmed downtown at closing time, some pulled from patrol duties. In recent weeks, police have deployed SWAT officers and others assigned to specific details, but Myers doesn't like that approach. Those officers, he said, need to focus on their mission, not babysit downtown.

"We're going to be transitioning to more of an overtime assignment," he said. That way, other parts of the city won't be left short, but it will cost.

Asked who would pay, Myers said, "We're in active conversations with them," meaning downtown business owners.

Although Kosley said "a couple" of bar owners are discussing paying into a fund to help defray police costs, it appears billing downtown businesses for extra patrols is off the table.

"Executive Committee also directed us to communicate with city that the need for policing in downtown, day and night, really should be addressed by re-allocation of existing resources, and/or support of increasing those resources through other means," a Downtown Partnership memo to the city said.

The memo said members of the downtown advocacy group cited the "local economic picture" and "equity" in opposing paying extra costs.

The group's memo also said the problem has subsided and that business owners want to "explore some additional measures that have not been discussed." Kosley declined to elaborate but said the group will hire a consultant that specializes in nightclub issues.