Off-Duty Cops In Golf Carts Patrolling San Jose Streets
SAN JOSE (CBS SF) – Off-duty police officers are being hired as private security officers in an attempt to halt crime in downtown San Jose.
Local businesses are paying for the extra security who patrol in a golf cart to respond to graffiti enforcement and street violence -- crimes generally falling under the watchful eyes of on-duty officers who have been taken off the streets because of short staffing.
"They've caught graffiti vandals in the act, and held them for us," said Scott Kneis of the San Jose Downtown Association
Kneis said the program is one response to the shrinking police department and increasing smaller crimes like graffiti.
"If they see any kind of criminal activity going on, they can step in, call on-duty back up and handle it for us right there," he said.
There has been an explosion of graffiti tagging in downtown San Jose and downtown businesses have to remove about 800 tags a month – a 4 percent increase over last year according to the Downtown Association.
City Hall, itself, has been especially hard hit with the west walls of the plaza getting tagged repeatedly over the last several weeks.
Mayor Sam Liccardo said the city would focus first on removing graffiti.
"We're going to keep doing it and tire them out," he said.
But on Friday the city manager's office announced that it would hire a private security company to guard City Hall to prevent tagging in the overnight hours.
The city is also going to add lighting, and fix a broken camera which is closest to the vandal's favorite tagging spot.
