Ron Jackson has been a familiar face in downtown Renton for more than two years, in his black and yellow security uniform and riding his bike.
He and for a time a partner, Josh Munoz, kept watch over the Renton Transit Center, making sure travelers and passersby were civil and alerting Renton police to criminal activity.
This second set of eyes is now gone as of Saturday, the victim of the recession’s deep impact on the City of Renton’s budget. Renton police officers will continue to patrol the transit center and the Police Department has an office there.
“We are not walking away from the transit center by any stretch of the imagination,” said Renton Police Commander Paul Cline.
School resource officers from nearby Renton High School will have a presence at the transit center, too, he said.
The City of Renton hired Jackson’s employer, Dotson Security of Renton, in 2008 to staff Visitor Information and Downtown Assistance, or VIDA, part of a broader city public-safety initiative to reduce crime and promote a sense of safety downtown and in the Renton community.
Don Dotson, owner of Dotson security, says VIDA’s goal was to get people to come downtown and shop.
“I think it’s a setback,” Dotson’s said, of the program’s loss.
The VIDA program was not funded in the city’s first-ever, two-year budget adopted by the City Council earlier this month.
But the City Council also this month adopted a new ordinance that gives police officers an important new tool to control behavior in and around the transit center.
The city had rules it could enforce at the transit center, but they didn’t address all the concerns expressed about the center, Cline said.
The new ordinance allows officers to expel a person from the transit center for violating the rules spelled out in the ordinance and without making an arrest. And, in turn, the ordinance gives a violator a chance to appeal the expulsion.
“It’s a great tool for us,” said Cline. Most of the problem is caused by a bus rider who decides to linger at the transit center, he said.
“We want to make it a more livable area down there and remove the problems before they become a big issue,” he said. “This ordinance will help with that.”
It’s the same expel/appeal process the city has in force in its parks. For example, Liberty Park was plagued with transients who spent the day at the park and the night sleeping under the library or bridges.
Repeat offenders can be expelled for up to a year.
Rather than just expelling someone from the transit center, an officer will first try to educate them about what is and isn’t acceptable behavior, Cline said.
It’s a violation to hang out – loiter – at the transit center for more than an hour. But Cline said an officer isn’t going to wait around for an hour to enforce that rule. “To be honest, that’s not something we want to have to enforce,” he said.
Instead, the goal is to get those who use the transit to comply with the rules, he said.
That includes skateboards, who tend to travel in groups. Skateboarders and bike riders must dismount on a pedestrian walkway.
Dotson said the transit center already is a safer place because of the efforts of his private security guards.
“We cleaned up that place,” he said. “You don’t want to go back.”
He described almost daily fights, thugs harassing people and drug sales. His “guys” would ask a young man how he was doing. How can we help? If you need something, we’re here every day.
“After awhile, they got the idea that this wasn’t cool to hang out here,” Dotson said.
Cline said the Police Department has seen a decline in the number of calls to the transit center.
