More security officers are coming to downtown Raleigh. Should they be carrying guns?
Downtown Raleigh is getting more security officers to supplement police, some with guns and others without.
A day after a 15-year-old boy was shot near Moore Square, elected leaders heard updates Tuesday on plans to increase security in parts of downtown
Private security officers starting next week and funded by the Downtown Raleigh Alliance will be unarmed.
“That’s something we insisted on for us,” said Bill King, the alliance’s CEO and president. “We feel like that’s most appropriate for our organization. They will be wearing body cams. They will file daily reports to us. And any serious incidents get an automatic alert to our team.”
The city, meanwhile, is pursuing a short-term contract with Capitol Special Police, a private policing agency that already patrols the city’s municipal building and city offices at One Exchange Plaza. Those officers will carry guns, wear body-worn cameras and likely be on the street in early November. The proposal is for a pair of two-person shifts covering 20 hours in the day.
The contract doesn’t need approval by the Raleigh City Council.
Council member questions guns
Raleigh staff contacted three security companies, and all three recommended having armed security officers.
Council member Megan Patton asked why.
David Walker, the city’s transportation supervisor, paused several seconds before answering.
“I may need to come back to you with a response on that,” he said. “I may need to confer with them and get their professional opinions. But based on the environment, that was their strong recommendation: that in order to have the respect of the community that would be a requirement.”
Assistant City Manager Evan Raleigh also responded to the question.
“Not only for the safety of their personnel, but their perceptions of the risk associated with the current environment that those were the factors that led them to say it was a strong recommendation,” he said. “And, in fact, my understanding is that they were not willing to provide the service if their personnel were not able to be armed.”
After the meeting, Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin said the city needs more eyes downtown.
“And if the only way they will do it is to be armed, then I think that would be appropriate,” she said. “But we need more eyes on the ground. That’s part of what our major challenge is.”
One community activist and frequent critic of the city, Octavia Rainey, also questioned security officers needing guns.
“I am appalled at what I heard today, and y’all should be appalled too,” she said. “Any time you have somebody tell you security (officers) ... are not coming out to the bus station because they can’t be armed? That’s ridiculous. That is ridiculous.”
‘This is not normal’
This is the second recent City Council committee meeting on downtown safety. Last month, city leaders heard from downtown business owners fed up with problems in the area.
“My staff has been spit on. My staff has been thrown up against glass windows. My staff has been sexually groped. My staff has been threatened with bricks, and they have had their lives threatened on a regular basis,” Kim Hammer, a downtown business owner, said at the September meeting. “This is a daily thing. It’s incredible stressful. We can’t take it any more.”
“This is not normal,” she said. “This is not Raleigh.”
On Tuesday, Wake County officials, including County Manager David Ellis, gave the council committee an overview of mental health, homeless and housing services that are provided through the county.
Walker, the city’s transportation supervisor, also addressed how long fares have been free on the city’s buses.
There’s been no charge since 2020, originally as a COVID-19 precaution. People had to enter and exit through the rear of the bus instead of the front.
But the buses have become de facto shelters for some people who have nowhere else to go and may have mental health and substance use issues. There’s been debate among city leaders, transit groups and nonprofits about if and when to bring back fares.
Unlike at the last meeting, there was no presentation from the Raleigh Police Department, nor did anyone mention Monday’s shooting on South Person Street that left the 15-year-old in critical condition. A suspect has been arrested in that case.
‘A delay tactic’
The members of the council’s Safe, Vibrant and Healthy Community Committee are Baldwin, Patton, Stormie Forte, and Christina Jones.
They disagreed on next steps.
Baldwin suggested moving the topic out of committee and back to the full City Council. She asked if staff could bring back recommendations for a long-term downtown policing plan, a plan to reinstate bus fares and a plan for a Downtown Raleigh Alliance meeting in Glenwood South.
The conversation should be broader than security, said Jones. Another topic should be potential partnerships with the Wake County Public School System and conversations about the city’s downtown social district, which allows people to purchase alcohol and carry it on the street in some parts of downtown.
“We talked about the social district and the great things that it does,” she said. “I also think it brings up some challenges, ... especially when you have a district where, right across the street, people get arrested for the same thing that people are doing on one side of the street. And that tends to really affect Black and brown members of our community, our unhoused community.”
Some of the recommendations may take more than a month, which is how often the committee meets, Baldwin said. And it gives the full eight-person City Council a chance to review what is being suggested by the committee.
Hearing from business owners and residents has been important and helpful, Jones said, but she doesn’t understand what the committee has done.
“I don’t understand what our purpose is,” she said. “And if we’re just here talking it just feels like this is a delay tactic without having any resolution. So I’d much rather come to some agreement on the committee as to what we would like to see and whether or not the full council takes it, that’s the full council’s decision. But right now, we’re not coming with any more clarity to the council than we came into this committee with, and I feel like it’s been a waste of time.”
The committee agreed to have staff bring back a slate of options next month that members could consider and then decide whether to recommend to the full council.
This story was originally published October 24, 2023 at 2:59 PM.
