GILBERT, Ariz. — The Town of Gilbert will weigh a new consideration to hire security guards at downtown parking garages in an attempt to cut down on teen violence and increase safety.
Jim Bisceglie, Gilbert's Assistant Police Chief, said if approved at Tuesday's council meeting, the security guards would be private and unarmed. There would be one security guard added to each of Gilbert's downtown garages. One is on the east side of Gilbert Rd. and another is on the west side of the road. The guards would be staffed during peak hours Wednesday through Saturday night, Bisceglie said.
The Gilbert Police Department said there are about 5.5 million people who visit the Downtown Heritage District every year and this is another step in safety resources for the area. Bisceglie said officers regularly patrol the area too.
"We have a dedicated bike team downtown which is seven bike officers and one sergeant, and not only that, we have between one to three patrol officers that's their dedicated area every night," Bisceglie said. "Long before we started noticing some of these incidents, the town was committed to upgrading our camera systems in the two parking garages."
Bisceglie said the camera upgrades on the east side of gilbert road are complete and they’re working to finish the upgrades on the west side of the road.
While the issue with teen activity has been going on for a couple of years, authorities have noticed an increase in teens hanging out in the garages in the past few months and especially past few weeks.
“We’ve had kids hanging out, we’ve had underage drinking, we’ve had drug use, but to stress the importance of it, when you have that volume of people, there will be incidents that take place," Bisceglie said. "But we’re fully committed to throwing all of our resources in the town at the parking garages to make it a safe place for everybody who visits the Heritage District.”
Tuesday's Gilbert Town Council meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. Stay with 12News for updates.
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