BusinessReport.com

On July 5, Mayor Kip Holden and Chief of Police Jeff LeDuff held a news conference where Holden announced a “zero-tolerance policy for criminals” and angrily declared “enough is enough.”

The purpose of the event, as Holden explained afterward, wasn’t to announce any major new anti-crime initiatives, but to try and reassure the public that their city—and downtown in particular—are safe.

“Baton Rouge, we’re gonna be OK,” Holden said.

The night before, a 21-year-old man was shot in the head and a 16-year-old girl was shot in the torso as they walked along the Mississippi River levee less than an hour after the Fourth of July fireworks display. Authorities say the victims were innocent bystanders to a dispute between pistol-packing teenagers.

The event was a potential setback to the city’s efforts to promote downtown’s revitalization as a premier place to live and visit. But the next night, the area’s bars and restaurants were doing brisk business. And on July 13, about 5,000 people attended Art Melt, Downtown Development Director Davis Rhorer estimates.

Downtown is defined by the city as the roughly 550 acres bordered by Interstate 10 to the south, Interstate 110 to the east, State Capitol to the north and river to the west.

City police don’t keep crime statistics specifically on the downtown area, but officials say it’s one of the safest areas in Baton Rouge. Still, the perception exists that the streets of downtown are dangerous places after dark.

Brace Godfrey is a downtown lawyer, a Downtown Development District commissioner and the head of Cyntreniks Group, which is renovating the Hotel King at Convention and Lafayette streets. He says part of the image problem could stem from a confusion of where downtown actually is, remembering a recent television report that referred to a crime on South 16th Street as occurring “downtown.”

Serious crimes are almost unheard of downtown, Godfrey argues. The July 4 shooting had “nothing to do with downtown and a lot to do with teens leaving their parents’ homes with guns.” Devin Deon Collins, 18, who surrendered to police July 6 in connection with the shooting, does not live downtown.

Rhorer says people who have a bad impression of downtown likely haven’t been there recently. He says the solution is to keep holding as many events downtown as possible, in hopes that, say, a young family that comes out for Live After Five might come back to a restaurant for dinner.

Jack Warner, co-owner of The Roux House and Happy’s Irish Pub on Third Street, admits there are many area residents who view downtown as a “scary place,” but says the July 4 shooting hasn’t put a dent in his business. He had his busiest Tuesday night two weeks after the incident. He says the shooting has been blown out of proportion because of the setting.

“If it had happened at Cortana Mall, we would not be talking about this,” Warner says.

Judy Hawkins, who was working the register at Downtown News on North Boulevard on a recent afternoon, says that she doesn’t mind being downtown during the day.

“But as far as anything at night, people are a little crazy when the sun goes down,” she says. “I don’t feel safe.”

Becky Cliburn, the owner of Downtown News, says she’s never had a problem in the six years she’s been open, aside from a few kids shoplifting and homeless people panhandling. She closes at night, although she says that’s more for economic than safety reasons.

Cliburn says that while she doesn’t come downtown at night often, her husband does, and she sees no reason to advise him or anyone else to avoid downtown after dark.

Sgt. Don Kelly, spokesman for the Baton Rouge Police Department, says the public perception of downtown crime has always far exceeded the reality, although he isn’t sure why.

Kelly says there are five officers dedicated to patrolling downtown and four mounted patrol officers who often work downtown events. The Louisiana Department of Public Safety keeps an eye on the state buildings, and the headquarters for both the city police and the sheriff’s office are downtown. Off-duty officers are often found working security in the area.

“It’s probably one of the best-patrolled areas in the city,” Kelly says.

Having more people downtown almost certainly means more crime. Ultimately, the amount of crime downtown depends on how well crime is controlled in the city.

There are already cameras around the city trained on critical infrastructure for homeland security purposes. The mayor’s office intends to install numerous cameras for crime enforcement and prevention, creating in Holden’s words “a security canopy” that will “blanket the city.”

The city’s allotment of officers was recently upped to 668, the first increase in at least 25 years, Kelly says. He says officials hope to add 75 more over the next three years. LeDuff plans to create crime abatement teams of four or five officers that could be dedicated to a single problem area over time, reinforcing the local patrols and building relationships with the local people.

Those relationships are important, since the communities that are most often the victims of crime often have the most distrust of law enforcement, making them less willing to provide the information that’s crucial to solving—and even preventing—crimes.

A strong police presence, however, only goes so far; there were numerous armed officers in the area near the levee on July 4.