Raleigh to hire private security to help police patrol parts of downtown, Baldwin says
The city of Raleigh will hire private security officers to patrol downtown after recent incidents of drug dealing, fighting, harassment and public defecation.
“We are hiring private security to patrol the area around the transit center where we’ve had some major issues, and also parts of Wilmington Street,” Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin said Tuesday afternoon. The city is also improving its lighting and re-assessing its cleaning schedules for the area.
Raleigh police reported a man was stabbed near the bus station at 11:21 p.m. Tuesday. The victim was taken to the hospital with serious injuries, according to a police news release.
There have also been concerns about juveniles hanging out and causing problems downtown and people running through businesses and harassing employees.
“We need more eyes on the street,” Baldwin said.
The city has made progress in hiring more police but there are still not enough, and parts of downtown need extra attention, she said. Last fall, the Police Department had about 100 vacancies among 800 sworn-officer positions. The News & Observer reported.
“This is a need that has come up,” Baldwin said.
A security firm could be hired as soon as this month, she said, adding this isn’t an issue just facing Raleigh.
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“Whenever I talk to my colleagues around this country, this is one of the biggest challenges they’re facing right now.” she said. “We are trying to work with our partners such as Downtown Raleigh Alliance and the Glenwood South (Neighborhood) Cooperative to come up with solutions and implement them because safety is our number one priority.”
The News & Observer asked the city about timing for the private security and was sent a statement.
“This city is working in partnership with the Downtown Raleigh Alliance to layer security measures in downtown Raleigh,” it said. “We are considering private security in select areas as part of the plan. We are still in the planning stages and will have additional details soon.”
There have been good results from deploying additional Raleigh police officers in “hot spots,” said Bill King, the CEO of the downtown alliance.
“We are also working with the city on use of private security to augment efforts by Raleigh police and our ambassadors,” he said. “Earlier this year, we looked and found other cities that use this type of deployment and can help bridge staffing gaps and other challenges in public safety staffing.”
Blount Street bus station a trouble spot
The area on Blount Street near the bus station, where the stabbing occurred Tuesday night, has seen “increased aggressive behavior” in recent months, King said.
“It’s complicated,” he said. “There’s different kinds of overlapping populations here. There are those who are unhoused, but are not a security threat, or safety threat; they’re just not housed. There are those who are unhoused and having mental illness issues. Sometimes that can be a safety concern.
“And then there’s some people who are neither unhoused nor mentally ill who are just, you know, problematic, and that’s a different issue,” he said. “And so all of those require kind of different solutions, some of which are interconnected.”
The Downtown Raleigh Alliance supports the creation of transit police for the bus station and system as a whole, “which is a common resource in cities with large transit systems and more necessary as Bus Rapid Transit comes online over the next few years,” King said.
The News & Observer has asked the Police Department for recent crime data for the GoRaleigh bus station area.
‘Violence has no place here’
Council member Jane Harrison, who represents southwest Raleigh and Glenwood South, acknowledged the challenges in Glenwood South during Tuesday’s council meeting. She called for a moment of silence for David Millette, a downtown restaurant employee who died after an altercation in Glenwood South. A man has been charged with murder in his death.
“We all know that violence has no place here,” she said. “It really has no place anywhere. So when it comes to Raleigh, it really hits me hard. I think it hits all of us. It’s a number one priority and it pains me that someone in our communities lost their life in one act of senseless violence.”
She requested monthly crime reports for downtown and Glenwood South from the Police Department.
“I want to focus on proactive solutions that we are taking, what are the steps that we are taking as a city, and then take time together to consider additional actions that we may want to take moving forward,” she said.
Part of the conversation will be explaining what the city is already doing, Baldwin said.
“We’re doing a lot and there a lot of plans, but people don’t know about it,” she said.
The downtown storefront and restaurant community is incredibly tight-knit, King said, and everyone is “heartbroken about (Millette’s) loss.”
“You want to have a successful, vibrant district, but it needs to be a safe district too,” he said. “And so, clearly, there’s work to be done.”
These topics will be discussed at 11:30 a.m. Sept. 26 during the council’s Safe, Vibrant and Health Community committee.
This story was originally published September 6, 2023 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Raleigh to hire private security to help police patrol parts of downtown, Baldwin says."
