No, I have not been hanging out with Wizardboots again. That happens Friday night.
But now that the provocative title has caught your eye, heh heh, allow me to burst the bubble. This is all about TriMet, downtown, and the folks who keep an eye on such things: Security guards.
Besides Portland Police and the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office, the city has contracts with several security companies. PPS (or is it PPI?) guards Pioneer Square, for example. And according to a reliable source, Downtown Clean & Safe will be replacing Wackenhut as transit mall security on July 1.
Regular downtowners (and the criminal element) can tell the difference between the factions. They have varying degrees of enforcement authority. Downtown Clean & Safe are a mix of retired law enforcement officers, unarmed security and current Portland Police officers. Wackenhut’s downtown security contingent is mostly military -trained and unarmed, with Observe and Report as their basic tenet. They wear fluorescent green uniforms, earning them the nickname ‘The Isotopes.’ Clean & Safe are called The Blue Crew. I have frequent contact with both, and know several officers on a first-name basis.
Wackenhut has been in charge of securing MAX platforms and light rail construction sites. Officers populate Fareless Square, offer assistance to riders and clear trains at the end of the Yellow line. They do foot-patrol, ride Segways and cruise on bicycles. They are a friendly bunch, although I think some may be a bit envious of their Clean & Safe counterparts. (I get visions of Tackleberry from the first Police Academy movie: “GUNS! When do we get guns?!”) Despite their professional nature, having a gun may leave them tempted to use it on the lovely types who spend their evenings cruising the mall, taunting folks and taking advantage of Fareless Square.
Well, it’s time for change — and I don’t mean spare change. There is talk of eliminating Fareless Square for buses, leaving just the trains in the current free setup. With that, and the changing of security measures, can we expect a cleaner, safer downtown?
While some folks see Downtown Clean & Safe nothing more than jackbooted thugs lock-stepping to a fascist beat, I see them quite differently. Clean & Safe’s basic function is to respond to nuisance calls, freeing up PPD to take care of more serious business. Got a homeless kid plucking the shrimps out of your dinner at the sidewalk cafe? A Clean & Safe officer will come along and tell him to knock it off. Sure, he may be gruff and armed to the teeth, but he or she probably has two or three decades of tolerating this type of nonsense, and can often get cooperation with minimal fuss. And let’s face it, if gunfire breaks out a few blocks away, you don’t want to have to wait for PPD to finish ticketing that guy peeing in the alley before responding. Clean & Safe handles that kind of dirty work.
Wackenhut is limited in how much they can do in regard to panhandling, loitering and such. Clean & Safe takes a more direct approach. They are not afraid to engage miscreants in conversation, check IDs, etc… While they *do* go looking for trouble, and often find it, they would just as soon have a peaceful, friendly night. A good night is when the biggest problem is settling on a mutual spot for lunch. They aren’t out to curb your fun so much as to make sure your fun doesn’t infringe on others.
I’ll still be able to see my Wackenhut buddies. They’ll be patrolling the eastside MAX platforms and the airport.
I should clarify that this hasn’t been officially announced. They’re still dotting their T’s and crossing their I’s. I heard it from “a little bird.”
Can you believe it? After all this time, downtown is almost fully open for business! I saw one of the new MAX trains test-driving up 5th Avenue. It was a beautiful site and, corny as it sounds, it filled me with civic pride.
I love this town.
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Still being new-ish to PDX, I’m not 100% sure of how eliminating the Fareless Square for buses helps make downtown safer? I don’t mean that in a snarky way, but more that I would think that most of the “bad” elements of downtown are already there and, thus, don’t care how they move about?
A lot of the downtown criminal element comes from outer neighborhoods. I believe the proper term is “you don’t shit where you eat.” They go to work just like the cops do. Drug habits are a seven-days-a-week job.
I no longer see losing buses to fareless square as a problem, with the crosstown MAX lines running. But then, I have a bus pass and like walking downtown.
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