Riverfront Park increasing security patrols this summer
Officials at Riverfront Park hope to crack down on vandalism by increasing the hours security officers patrol during the summer.
It’s part of a larger push to boost park security through extended staff coverage and public safety improvements during the park’s redesign, park security supervisor Justin Worthington said.
Starting in June, security officers will be on patrol 20 hours a day until the end of the busy season in September, extending their coverage during early morning hours. Normally security is on patrol 16 hours a day in the summer and 10 hours a day the rest of the year.
A pilot program last summer showed even a few hours of extra security made a big difference. When the park tested 24/7 security coverage for about six weeks, the cost to repair vandalism dropped from $44 to less than $13 per day, and security officers saw almost no major acts of vandalism, Worthington said.
Security upgrades also will be part of the $64 million redesign and upgrade of the park approved by voters in November. The park’s design team still is being selected, so little is set in stone. But acting Riverfront Park Director Sam Song said likely improvements include better lighting on pathways, a camera system and “blue light boxes,” common on college campuses, which allow people to contact security with the push of a button in an emergency.
“In general, the park is a pretty safe place, but like many other urban spots, this is a big place and there are so many dark corners,” Song said. Security officers regularly find needles and vandalized items in some of the less-trafficked parts of the park, he said.
Though Spokane police patrol the park using a motorized cart and bicycles as well as on foot, having a dedicated park security force helps officers keep an eye on a large public space.
“That’s a pretty big piece of property right in the middle of the city,” said police Capt. Brad Arleth, who leads the downtown precinct. “It’s beneficial and helpful to have them handling lower-level things.”
Many of the park’s eight security officers have limited police commissions. That means they can write citations and even arrest people for a limited number of crimes and infractions, including theft, disorderly conduct and misdemeanor assault.
“People that frequently come down here, they know when we’re not here,” Worthington said. Before the pilot, he would see a large increase in vandalism just after security staff went home for the night.
Police in Spokane’s downtown precinct also noticed a difference with the extended hours.
“It was very helpful last year. When they reduced it towards the end of summer we noticed immediately, as did some of the people downtown,” Arleth said. Reports of people loitering around walkways or trying to spend the night in the park increased, he said.
Worthington hopes expanding summer hours will deliver the same benefits as round-the-clock security without the full cost. Twenty-hour coverage costs the department $3,640 per week, an increase of $728 in the summer.
At the end of this summer, security officers will evaluate the effect of increased hours on vandalism and decide how to handle staffing in the future, Worthington said.
Arleth said he hoped the larger redesign would continue a trend of attracting more people downtown and to the park, which tends to lower crime.
“That’s good for everybody because that tends to cut down on empty space problem behaviors,” he said.
With Kendall Yards growing and more people likely to be using the park, Song believes security upgrades are a powerful tool to help people feel safe, especially at night. Improvements like well-lit pathways will raise public confidence in park safety, he said.
“They will naturally feel safer. We don’t have to do any PR.”