Asheville safety committee discuss extending downtown police initiative to West Asheville

ASHEVILLE – The “very visible” police presence in downtown Asheville is likely to continue past the 60th day of the city’s downtown safety initiative and might spread beyond the central business district to West Asheville, city leaders said at the June 27 Environment and Safety Committee meeting, although that was not officially decided.

On the 57th day of the initiative, the members of the committee, which oversees policy updates and recommendations concerning public health and safety, discussed updates on the initiative, as well as a possible expansion to other locations. The meeting also covered possible steps to reduce vehicle noise downtown and mediate early morning waste hauler noise.

For the most part, everything done in the 60-day initiative will continue, said City Manager Debra Campbell.

“We are not going to stop anything that we undertook for this 60-day initiative,” Campbell said. “We are working through some of the details about the frequency of the service. We want the community to understand that particularly as it relates to a (police) presence, we will continue to be on foot, we will have law enforcement on bikes. The things that we were either returning to or initiating new, like our community responder program, that is going to continue.”

Dana Frankel, the city’s downtown development specialist, said staff are working on a deeper analysis of impact data collected during the 60-day initiative and will be releasing a detailed report June 30. This data is tracked on the city’s project page and released every two weeks to those who subscribe to the project.

The interdepartmental team held a retreat June 22 to review data and lessons learned throughout what the committee bills a “collaborative, community-wide initiative.” Regarding the main takeaways of the retreat, Frankel said that “the proactive public safety presence is absolutely appreciated by the community” and survey results found that community members feel downtown is cleaner.

More: Asheville announces downtown safety initiative: 'A very visible' police presence to come

Council member Sheneika Smith asked the committee what encompasses “downtown” and if there are plans to expand the initiative to other locations, saying there has been a “large outcry from West Asheville neighbors” over public safety in the area.

In response to a Citizen Times question on exactly how many complaints Smith has received from West Asheville, she said she could not pinpoint a number nor provide a concrete time frame. Smith did say she has received emails requesting more coverage in West Asheville over the last few years.

“For the purpose of this initiative, we focused on the central business district specifically, so when we refer to downtown, that’s what we are referring to,” Frankel said. “Moving forward, we do see opportunities to replicate this sort of focused work, and we’ve heard similar feedback specifically about West Asheville.”

The community responder initiative, which is led by the Asheville Fire Department to “support individuals in crisis and provide a more visible city public safety presence downtown,” has likely already gone outside the central business district, according to Campbell. Regarding what the future looks like for expansion of the initiative’s reach, Campbell said they are “essentially trying to go where the need is.”

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What has been impact of safety initiative?

The impact of the initiative, and how it’s felt throughout the community, will depend on who you ask. Critics hold concerns regarding a continued increase in police presence, particularly how it affects Asheville’s unhoused community.

“I really don’t want to see this initiative move to West Asheville, although I think that it’s already happening in my neighborhood,” a West Asheville resident, who didn't give her name, said during the public comment portion of the meeting.

“I was just walking my dog during the beginning of this meeting and there are police currently at the end of my street harassing somebody who’s homeless. … I am deeply concerned, and I think police are already cracking down. We saw them use a restrictive breathing tactic with Devin Whitmire, and it was very disturbing. I am concerned about safety; I just think safety comes through community care and we have people who are deeply in need of help right now. … We can’t incarcerate our way out of this in our state’s deadliest jail, Buncombe County Detention.”

Another public commenter told the committee that West Asheville has issues that need addressing.

More: What it's like to be homeless in Asheville, as described by those who are living it

"I don't know if you've been to West Asheville recently, but there's some real problems over here as far as trash and vagrants," said another public commenter, who also did not offer his name. "To me, talking about noise is great and all, but it's sort of like talking about the color of the curtains while the house is on fire. There's some serious problems over here, people shooting up right outside of businesses, people smoking crack right outside of businesses, people defecating and peeing right outside of businesses."

The Citizen Times has requested West Asheville crime statistics from the Asheville Police Department but did not receive an answer before press time.

The 60-day Downtown Safety Initiative, which launched May 1, is an effort across multiple city departments that focuses on the approximately 3-square-mile district and includes:

• Increased law enforcement presence (Asheville Police Department).

• Community Responder Pilot Program (Asheville Fire Department).

• Enhanced security and maintenance in downtown parks (Parks and Recreation).

• Increased cleanliness activities (Public Works).

• Lighting maintenance (Transportation).

• Focused parking enforcement and garage maintenance (Parking).

• Plus public safety assessment walks, community cleanups, crime prevention tips, reporting and information sharing.

More: Asheville police: Man 'eviscerated' dog at Weaver Park while owner played pickleball

Reducing vehicle noise downtown

The city’s Noise Advisory Board, which was created by an updated noise ordinance that took effect Sept. 15, 2021, proposed a revised ordinance be created to reduce vehicular noise from intentional engine revving and modified exhaust systems, to be presented for council approval in 2023.

Jessica Tomasin, the NAB’s chair, suggested a study be conducted to target which days and times are most problematic. From there, she proposed working with law enforcement to have an officer present once or twice a month at these most problematic times to write tickets and help mitigate the noise.

“The car noise downtown is obnoxious at best and really startling at worst; and it’s really disruptive to the downtown space when you hear these cars barreling through, and it's as if they are just doing it for fun,” said Maggie Ullman, chair of the Environment and Safety Committee, who went on to suggest this issue be folded into whatever next steps are developed for the downtown safety initiative.

More: Noise ordinance 1 year later: After fervor of the 2021 vote, where is Asheville now?

Upon the advice of Sandra Kilgore, Asheville’s vice mayor, the committee decided to tackle the problem in phases, starting with signs and education.

“This is something that will still need city resources as far as approving a budget for us to make the signs, but I think that is a good example of a first step that isn’t going to take away from other more important things we are doing for the community,” Tomasin said. “We can put signs up, see if we see a decrease in complaints and a decrease in the problem, then move forward accordingly.”

Mediating early morning waste hauler noise

Asheville's noise advisory board also proposed that City Council require the city manager to establish a task force to evaluate new methods of allocating waste pickup.

Rick Freeman, NAB vice chair, said the board has been receiving complaints from residents about noise created by waste pickup as early as 5 a.m. He also said there has been concern over pedestrian injury due to multiple haulers servicing the same area.

"We have commercial waste collection and then the city is also collecting from some residence and businesses downtown," said Jes Foster, Asheville's solid waste manager. "Some of the ways we are doing all this are really outdated, especially with the ways downtown has grown. But noise is not the only factor, space is a factor, development requirements, looking at roadway damage."

Council approved $350,000 in the upcoming budget for a solid waste masterplan, a big piece of which will be looking at how downtown waste collection happens, according to Foster. Part of the solid waste plan is to hire a professional solid waste consultant and get public input. Instead of creating an entirely new task force to cover the issue of waste hauler noise, the committee decided to tackle these concerns within the solid waste master plan.

Ryley Ober is the Public Safety Reporter for Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Please support local, daily journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: City discusses expanding downtown safety initiative to West Asheville