Private security begins patrolling downtown Raleigh on Halloween
Just in time for tonight’s Halloween crowds, a private security force will begin patrolling parts of downtown Raleigh.
It was just a week ago when a 15-year-old boy was shot near Moore Square – one of the areas in downtown seeing an uptick in crime.
Starting Tuesday morning, the Downtown Raleigh Alliance will bring in a private security force to patrol parts of downtown from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m., seven days a week.
The security guards will be unarmed, and they'll wear body cameras while patrolling areas like Glenwood South, Fayetteville Street, Davie Street and the Moore Square area.
The Downtown Raleigh Alliance is also training local businesses on a new security camera network.
These security additions come alongside an increased presence of Raleigh police within the past month -- even as the department tries to fill about 80 vacant positions.
Wake leaders say this is just one step in addressing the challenges at hand.
"We need a long term plan for securing downtown, so we don’t end up in a situation we got to at the end of summer where it was just not an acceptable state," said Bill King, president of the Downtown Raleigh Alliance.
"We’ve never really had a system of care for behavioral health that this community deserves, so there are now people at the table who are like – we can do better and we should do better," added David Ellis, on the Wake County Board of Commissioners.
The City of Raleigh also plans to hire its own private security force for the downtown transit center. Wake County is also working with the city to improve social services for people who are experiencing homelessness or who are in mental health crisis.
