PORT ANGELES – Port Angeles may be returning a police officer assigned to the downtown.
City Manager Nathan West says he’s looking into how to restart the “Downtown Resources Officer” position. It was eliminated several years ago due to budget cuts. But West noted recent damage to city-owned property, revitalization work by the Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce and surveys of downtown businesses show it’s time to get an officer downtown again.
“The Chamber of Commerce did a presentation to us and shared the value that is recognized by the downtown businesses of having a secure environment in the downtown and the chamber did a survey of what businesses would be willing to contribute. If there were a matching approach to a downtown resource officer. They brought that forward, presented it and ultimately made an ask of the city. What resources could you put forward to help make sure a downtown resource officer happens,” said West.
West says just this year, the city has suffered significant property damage from vandalism.
“When you look at it from a city perspective, the other thing that we think about is some of the challenges we’ve seen with crime and vandalism. And it’s actually impacted city property, resulting in a substantial cost to us. One of the things we incorporated in the memorandum to council, was just a list of some of the vandalism that we’ve seen occur to city-owned property and city-owned infrastructure over the year and it was upwards of $60,000,” said West.
West says the position would be assigned to the downtown, but he’s also concerned with keeping all the city’s areas robust.
“If you look at the council strategic plan, it identifies the fact that we want to enhance and grow all of our commercial districts and I think that’s extremely important. It’s not just the downtown. When you look at adding an officer period on the city’s police force, it actually helps alleviate some of the strain on the remainder of town as well, as that individual would act as backup for other parts of the community,” said West.
The city council has directed West to come back with options as the council works through next year’s budget process.