The foot and bike patrol is rolled
out and a city is reborn
By T.J. Richardson, PCI # 139/EMSCI
#010
IPMBA Vice President
San Antonio PD (TX)
The year is 1990. San Antonio, home
to the famed Alamo, retains little of its past glory. Although people still
come to steep themselves in history, they rarely linger. They drive their
cars as close to the Alamo as possible, take the tour, and are on their way.
Downtown is still home to a variety of businesses, but at 5:00pm, the sidewalks
are rolled up and most everyone heads towards the growing suburbs. Those
who do stay might begin to feel unsafe. The streets are dark, there are few
pedestrians, and danger seems to lurk around every corner. In fact, crime
rates have been high in this area for years with little hope that they will
decrease. The police log book chronicles a variety of crimes, ranging from
drunks to robberies and sexual assaults. The news reports further discourage
"good" citizens from frequenting the downtown area.
In the face of all this, a group of determined citizens decide to fight back.
A small band of downtown residents and business owners who have come together
to form the Downtown Owners Association, now known as the Downtown Alliance,
begin a journey down the road to revitalization. The members of the Downtown
Alliance pledge their own funds to the effort, but they are not alone. The
goal of bringing San Antonio back is shared by the city, which reels from
the declining tax base and hopes to transform downtown from a forgotten landmark
to a "crown jewel." Plans are formulated to transform the downtown area into
a vibrant center of commerce and polish the lackluster riverwalk into an
attraction even more popular than the Alamo itself.
As part of the revitalization effort rallied by the Downtown Alliance, the
San Antonio Police Department established the Downtown Foot Patrol; forty-five
men and women who would revive the concept of the "police beat," in which
police officers patrol a small district in a visible and approachable manner.
The goal of this seemingly old-fashioned way of policing appears to be quite
simple: be visible enough that the good citizens feel safe and that the bad
ones feel unwelcome. It is more complex than that, of course, because a beat
officer is very approachable and quickly becomes a part of the community.
It is a great beginning, but there is something missing; a void between the
closeness and rapport of the beat officer and the speed of the cruiser. A
popular entertainment district on the edge of the foot patrol beat needs
the beat officers to get there faster and give them better coverage. One
of the business leaders there jokingly scoffs, "if we gave you bicycles,
would you get here faster?" There is a small burst of laughter, but as the
laughter dies, a silence falls over the table with both business leaders
and police officers fixed in thought. Could bicycles work? There was talk
of bike patrols being used in a city in the northwest, but San Antonio is
far too conservative and old-world for such an unorthodox idea. But the Downtown
Alliance offers to buy the equipment if the police will give it a try.
A pilot project begins with five bicycles and a handful of officers trained
to ride them. The downtown thugs and gang members laugh as big, strong police
officers don shorts and white helmets. Curious tourists point at the strange
sight, and the business owners watch in anticipation. Within days, the laughter
of the thugs turns to cries of panic. They run, but to no avail, because
the bike officers are highly mobile, silent, and agile enough to follow the
bad guys into the nooks and crannies that characterize the downtown streets.
An all-out campaign against crime is launched, and it begins to work. The
Foot & Bike Patrol, working in concert with the members of the business
community and public and private investors, has begun to make a startling
difference.
Fast forward to 1995. Anyone who visited San Antonio a mere five years ago
would be amazed. The streets are clean. More restaurants and shops line the
San Antonio River, and it is "the place to be" on Friday nights. Several
downtown buildings have been transformed into new shops and residences. A
state-of-the-art shopping mall is erected where once dilapidated buildings
stood and tourists wander far beyond the limits of the Alamo. There are still
some empty buildings, but downtown is becoming a desirable place to work
and play. Hotels are cropping up to serve the increasing number of tourists
and conventioneers. Police officers seem to be everywhere on bicycles as
only five of the downtown officers still walk. They are talking to residents
and business owners, walking or pedaling around town, and answering the question,
"where is the Alamo?" what seems like a million times a day. Crime rates
have dropped across the board and the nature of the offenses has shifted
to more petty ones. The Downtown Foot & Bike Patrol has played a significant
role in the transformation and has been enthusiastically embraced by the
members of the Downtown Alliance.
Back to the present: 2002. The revitalization of downtown San Antonio has
been, by all accounts, a resounding success. The popular Riverwalk stretches
for a mile or more and attracts throngs of people, both day and night; over
two million people each year (Source: Paseo del Rio Association). It is often
impossible to secure a table at a riverfront restaurant without a reservation
or a long wait. As a whole, San Antonio is attracting visitors in record
numbers - an estimated 8 million visitors in 1997 and growing so fast in
recent years that an accurate count is difficult to obtain. San Antonio,
with its historic Alamo and beautiful Riverwalk, has become the #1 tourist
destination in Texas, and the ninth most popular destination in the United
States (Source: San Antonio Convention & Visitors Bureau). Even with
the 17% increase in downtown office space between 1995 and 2000, available
space is scarce and what space is available commands a premium rent. (Source:
San Antonio Business Journal). Very few empty buildings remain as they are
being bought up and transformed at a feverish pace. Nineteen new hotels have
been built in the downtown area since 1995 - a 75% increase in hotels and
a 43% increase in hotel rooms - and still the occupancy rate hovers at an
impressive 61%. In 1995, visitors occupied over 4600 rooms per night; today,
that number is over 5700 (Source: San Antonio Downtown Alliance).
The Downtown Foot & Bike Patrol is still busy. The concept has grown
past the inner city boundaries to include every substation and every neighborhood
in San Antonio. There are now some 400 trained bike officers and a fleet
of over 300 bikes, maintained by a full-time civilian mechanic. They are
still seen on every street corner downtown, and even a woman walking alone
in the evening can feel safe in most places.
Despite the influx of thousands of more people downtown to work, visit or
play, the rate of crime has continued to decline in most categories. Most
occurrences of disturbance consist of petty assaults from the bar crowd
dispersing late or the occasional vehicle being broken into to lift brightly
colored shopping bags. The officers of the Downtown Bike Patrol continue
their vigil and fight crime in places unreachable by their motorized
counterparts. Most business leaders and residents agree that the Downtown
Foot & Bike Patrol has been one of the single most influential factors
for growth and industry. They also agree that without the foot and bike patrol,
problems would be highly prevalent and the deterioration of downtown would
begin instantly.
As San Antonio reaches its saturation point, the Downtown Patrol faces new
challenges in devising ways to keep crime from tarnishing the city's new-found
jewel. If they demonstrate the same spirit and determination of a decade
ago, they will find a way.
T.J. can be reached at
tjrichardson@hotmail.com.
(C) 2002 IPMBA. This article first appeared in the Fall 2002 issue of IPMBA
News. |
