Thursday, December 14, 2023–1:00 p.m.
-David Crowder, WRGA News-
The Rome Downtown Development Authority is looking into once again hiring off-duty police officers as additional security for the downtown area as schools get ready to dismiss for the Christmas holiday.
Issues regarding unsupervised and sometimes unruly juveniles remain, especially in the 200 block and the area of the Town Green, mostly on weekends.
According to Rome DDA Director Aundi Lesley, off-duty officers working security between May and the first weekend of November reported 85 interactions with juveniles. There were 23 interactions with the homeless, 29 noise or traffic violations, and nine arrests.
There have been other incidents since then, like this past weekend in which multiple law enforcement agencies had to respond.
Some business owners have hired their own security, but others cannot afford it.
“Last week I was talking to the owner of one of the businesses that tends to be a hotspot for some of these kinds of issues, and asked if he has considered hiring security,” Lesley told the DDA board Thursday. “He said he has, but the going rate right now is $50 an hour, which is what we have been paying these officers. He said he could not, from a business standpoint, pay $50 an hour.
In 2021, following a large fight in downtown Rome involving multiple juveniles, there was talk of moving the curfew for anyone under the age of 17 from 11 p.m. until 10 p.m. as recommended by the city’s public safety committee. It also had the backing of Rome City Police Chief Denise Downer-McKinney. However, the measure was never approved by the full Rome City Commission.
Some members of the DDA board asked if it might be time to revisit the 10 p.m. curfew. While others wondered if a 10 p.m. curfew would even help, noting that most of the reported incidents have been between the hours of 8 and 9 p.m.
“I don’t know what the answer is,” Lesley said. “I’m just concerned that something detrimental is going to happen and then we’re really going to find ourselves in a situation.”
Lesley told the board that she would work to see if some of the off-duty officers would be willing to continue to work security downtown once school is out for the holidays.
