Williamsburg police to increase surveillance at Briar Creek Park

Cole Parke, The Times-Tribune, Corbin, Ky.
·3 min read

Jun. 8—WILLIAMSBURG — The Williamsburg Police Department will be increasing surveillance and installing an 11 p.m. curfew at Briar Creek Park after a string of vandalism has taken place on the playground and around the facilities.

The park had always closed at 10 p.m., but officers offered leeway to anyone to enter the area past that time to use the running track, but that will be changing as Police Chief Wayne Bird described the curfew as "strict".

"The reason we said 11 is because it's [base]ball season," Bird said. "They have ball games down there and sometimes those ball games don't get over til after dark, so we want to give the public some leeway and let them be able to use and enjoy the park, but at the same time we have to do something about it so we started strictly enforcing the park closing at 11 p.m."

While the vandalism has been recurring and rampant in the form of graffiti and broken playground equipment, it's not the only issue that is leading to the strict closing time, with Chief Bird also describing needles and other used drug paraphernalia in the area as well as homeless people sleeping in the park.

"We're constantly picking up needles in the park," Bird said. "We have to do something about the drug use and vagrants in the park. We got several homeless people in the area, and we know those individuals are going into the park late at night and sleeping and camping. Those are the individuals we're focused on right now."

While Chief Bird was not positive that the homeless population was responsible for the graffiti and broken playground equipment, he cited vagrancy and drug use as major problems that needed to be solved as well.

While the notion of graffiti and broken equipment may lead some to assume that young adults or teenagers may be responsible with school letting out for the summer, Bird said the spike in the vandalism didn't follow the end of the school year, but rather the warmer weather and nicer days, making it harder to determine who is responsible for the crimes.

"I don't necessarily think it has anything to do with school," Bird said. "I think we started seeing that when the weather got warmer, people started coming out more. I wouldn't describe [the graffiti] as 'tags' because we don't have any gang issues around here, I would say it's mostly profanity. A lot of it is profanity."

The curfew isn't the only precaution and safety measure put in place to ensure the park once again becomes a safe haven for children to play and adults to feel at peace, with regular patrols being done by officers throughout the day.

"What we're doing early in the morning is going to the park first thing and trying to catch any vagrants or other people leaving the park," Bird said. "I think we spent Friday morning doing that and I think my officers did that today as well."

Bird emphasized the strict measures are just being put in place to protect locals and traveling families in the park, and to clean up what should be a calm and safe place to relax.

Bird said that anybody found to be living in the park, doing drugs in the park or vandalizing the playground equipment or other facilities will be told to leave or receive a citation or go to jail for criminal trespassing with no exceptions.

In saying that, he also emphasized that he doesn't wish to demonize groups of people or locals who are down on their luck, citing the precautions strictly as safety measures for kids and other vulnerable groups.

"We want to help people that are truly homeless," Bird said. "We have a homeless shelter here. It's just that community parks are not the places for them to be staying."

The closing time and frequent patrols will be enacted until further notice.