Police patrol on bikes: New substation coming to downtown Redwood City
July 25, 2016, 05:00 AM By Bill Silverfarb, Daily Journal
Photo courtesy of Redwood City: A new police unit has been added to patrol downtown Redwood City that will soon be housed in a substation across from Courthouse Square.
Redwood City CA -- Downtown Redwood City’s continued growth has prompted the Police Department to add more officers to patrol the area both on foot and bicycle.
Police Chief JR Gamez has implemented a Downtown Service Unit, comprised of five officers, that will soon have its own substation across from Courthouse Square on Broadway.
The unit is in response to the growing number of residents who now call downtown home, the thousands of office workers who flood the area during the day and the high number of events that downtown hosts, Gamez said Thursday.
“Downtown is now a neighborhood,” Gamez said.
Getting officers out of their cars to patrol on foot and bicycle is meant to increase the community engagement downtown, he said.
The unit will also strengthen relationships with the business community, he said.
The substation, next to the Fox Theatre, is expected to open at the end of this month and will be a meeting place for residents and officers to engage each other.
The unit will also focus on identifying the chronic homeless downtown in an attempt to get them off the streets and into shelters that will provide additional wraparound services.
“It’s like a HOT team on steroids,” said Gamez about the concept of homeless outreach teams.
A single officer is in charge of the department’s homeless program who then works with patrol officers weekly to discuss how best to address the issue. The department also partners with local nonprofits to reach out to the homeless and the downtown unit will play a key part in that.
The downtown unit will also keep a keen eye on the Sequoia Caltrain station, Gamez said.
Although there have been an increase in calls from downtown, overall violent crime has dropped in the city by 8 percent, Gamez said.
The increased calls downtown are simply because there are more people living there now, Gamez said.
The city also got a good deal on renting the office space for the substation, Mayor John Seybert said.
Adding more officers downtown is also a natural progression, Seybert said.
“We had a vision long ago about what we knew would be necessary,” he said about increased growth downtown and the addition of more officers patrolling the area.
The substation will allow police to better connect to the community, he said.
“It’s about having healthy relationships with the community,” Seybert said.