PORT ANGELES — New cameras and a wireless network will help the Port Angeles Police Department fight a loitering problem at The Gateway transit center and surrounding neighborhood, Downtown Resource Officer John Nutter told community business leaders Monday.
Port Angeles police and Clallam Transit officials told a Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce luncheon audience that there are issues associated with youth and young adults loitering downtown.
Clallam Transit General Manager Terry Weed said that The Gateway transit center, which opened in 2009, tends to be the focus of the “street scene.”
“The Gateway center, for Transit purposes works very well,” Weed told a crowd of about 50 at the Port Angeles Red Lion Hotel.
“It’s a vibrant center. That doesn’t mean there we’re free of problems and issues, as many of you are aware.
“Because of its openness, there is a congregation of people,” Weed continued.
“There’s loitering, there’s behavior activities, there’s language, there’s health issues, there are a variety of issues that are, in a way, a microcosm of our society.”
Some chamber members said loitering is hurting their business.
Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Russ Veenema said some business owners are even concerned about their employees’ safety.
“Of the 12 years that I’ve been down there,” Veenema said, “it does seem to be getting worse.”
Nutter, who has office space at The Gateway, said the city has a $400,000 grant to replace most of the camera system along Railroad Avenue and the Port Angeles waterfront.
“We’re working on an eight-year-old camera system right now that is at the end of life,” Nutter said.
Port Angeles is also in the process of installing a citywide wireless network that will enable officers to access live images of The Gateway from every patrol car and office computer.
City police have stepped up their presence in the downtown core — Deputy Chief of Police Brian Smith said he spends a portion of his day patrolling the area — with some success.
“I find that when I go to one corner, they’ll all move to the next corner,” said Nutter, who adjusted his hours to be downtown when most of the kids are hanging out there.
Unless a group or an individual is breaking a municipal code, such as blocking a sidewalk, there is little that police can do by law.
“These kids, generally, are not breaking the law,” Nutter said.
Smith said the police department recently upgraded the connectivity of its office at The Gateway that enables Nutter to access the city’s network from downtown.
Nutter said the people who congregate downtown fit into three main categories:
■ Youngsters between ages of 12 and 15 without parental supervision.
Nutter said this is a relatively well-behaved group.
■ Older youth and young adults with no place to go who rely on the community’s wide range of social services.
While most are relatively well-behaved, Nutter said members of this group caused most of the problems at The Gateway, City Pier and along Railroad Avenue.
■ An adult homeless population.
Some members of this group are intimidating to business owners, their customers and tourists, Nutter said.
When he asks teens and young adults why they congregate downtown, Nutter said the common theme is they want to be in the “center of it all.”
He said the youth want to be seen and have access to food and public rest rooms.
Nutter said most of the young people he encounters would have no interest in a teen center.
“They want to be outside,” said Nutter, who is also an Olympic Medical Center commissioner.
“They want to be seen. They want to be interacting with all their friends out and about.”
Nutter predicted that the loitering issue won’t be as bad this summer as it was last summer, when the city enforced a no loitering policy on the playground equipment at City Pier.
“But I don’t think they [the youngsters] are going to go away, either,” he said.
Clallam Transit reduced the hours of the public restrooms and elevator at The Gateway to minimize vandalism, a measure that Weed said has helped.
“The last and maybe one of the bigger remaining issues to resolve is public smoking on the property,” Weed said.
Transit officials are considering whether to close off the two designated smoking areas.
“My only concern with that is it will put that activity out into the neighborhood,” Weed said.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
