LITTLE ROCK — In addition to sweeping the streets and cleaning up graffiti, Little Rock's Downtown Partnership could someday help rub out crime.
Director Sharon Priest said that after the Metrocentre Improvement District pays off its debts, she will recommend that it hire private security guards to patrol downtown streets.
The guards would likely be unarmed and lack the authority to make arrests, but they would supplement the work of police officers by patrolling around the clock, Priest said.
They would help dispel the perception that downtown Little Rock is unsafe, she said.
"If we want people to live and play downtown, people need to feel safe," Priest said.
Fears about safety downtown were stirred in August when two people were robbed and kidnapped from parking lots near the River Market. On Monday night, a man was hospitalized after being beaten in the 200 block of Scott Street.
The Downtown Partnership administers the services for the Metrocentre Improvement District, which collects assessments from businesses in a 45-square-block area of downtown.
Before it can hire the guards, the district would first have to pay off its $4.5 million in outstanding bonds, issued to pay for projects such as the parking garages at Sixth and Scott streets and Second and Main streets.
More than 80 percent of the money the district collectsin fees on businesses, about $650,000 a year, goes toward the debt, Priest said.
The bonds are scheduled to be paid off in 2017. But that could be shortened to as little as three years if the district sells the garage at Sixth and Scott, Priest said. Once the bonds are paid off, the district will consider adding services and expanding its territory, possibly into the River Market, she said.
She added that business owners and the district's commission would have to agree to expand the district and add services.
In the River Market District, Ten Thousand Villages assistant manager Barbara Francis said better security is badly needed.
A few weeks ago, someone broke into one of her employees' cars, which had been parked in a garage behind the store, she said. The store has also had problems with panhandlers and people passing out on a bench outside, she said.
"For our customers that come in from out of state, that's not leaving a very good impression, and it's keeping the local folks away," Francis said.
Lt. Terry Hastings, a spokesman for the Little Rock Police Department, said crime isn't worse downtown than in other parts of the city, although he acknowledged the perception created bythe carjackings and beating.
If the Downtown Partnership wants to hire guards, police would welcome the help, he said.
"All it does is put another set of eyes and ears on the street," he said.
Business improvement districts have hired security guards in several other cities, including New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia, Priest said.
In Memphis, the Center City Commission is considering hiring security guards to curb problems with panhandlers and congregations of teenagers, President Jeff Sanford said.
The commission already has a 12-member Blue Suede Brigade, a group of uniformed employeeswho carry two-way radios and answer visitors' questions. But members of the brigade see a crime being committed, they are trained to hold back and summon the police, Sanford said.
The commission is exploring options such as hiring a security company, creating its own security force or using reserve deputies from the Shelby County sheriff's office. It may also help security guards at hotels and other businesses to coordinate their efforts, such as by using a common radio system.
"We would just feel better about the whole situation in downtown as it is growing larger if we had more visible, on-thestreet security," Sanford said.
Arkansas, Pages 19, 21 on 10/07/2007