“Let’s show everyone what San Antonio is all about, a safe, fun city,” Berrigan told the group.
Construction will be paused, the city said, but regardless, road closures could affect some commutes. SAPD Lt. Matt Porter said people should travel into downtown northbound, and not southbound, due to road closures.
“If you’re doing southbound traffic into downtown, it’s going to be a mess,” he said.
The city’s parking enforcement department has been directed to work with people as much as possible, and try to find solutions around other major issues that arise. Parking enforcement will be based on construction areas.
SAPD’s bike patrol is also prepared to help officers address crime issues; Two detectives are based in downtown. Detective Joshua Jones said the downtown unit often works with hotels and restaurants that have issues with the same people.
He also said car burglaries and stolen guns continue to be a problem, noting that in one instance, hotel management suspected a concierge staffer of stealing guns at the hotel. The case was escalated to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives or ATF.
Recently, every weekend, the SAPD unit has collected at least two guns downtown — mostly from those between the ages of 17 and 20, he said.
“They’re mostly just kids, we’re getting a bunch of them. We’ve got glocks and switches, we’ve got stuff we’ve never seen before,” Jones said at the meeting, adding gun arrests are happening in areas along Commerce and Losoya streets.
“On nights, we’re getting a lot of guns. I do believe Final Four is going to be less, but Fiesta will be more,” he said on the prevalence of car burglaries.
Most calls for service come from parts of Commerce Street between North St. Mary’s and Alamo Plaza, where Centro wants to add an integrated security camera network SAPD would monitor full-time to investigate crimes at better response rates.
Jones said SAPD Bike Patrol has added more officers in downtown and has been successful in taking guns from people who shouldn’t have them.
Centro will also deploy 130 ambassadors and a Crisis Response Team with retired officers, who are safety administrators, to specific areas to be the “eyes and ears” and check on any potentially violent situation of one that needs attention.
“See something, say something,” Porter said to downtown hospitality managers in the crowd. “If it doesn’t look right, call 210-207-7764, our bike office. They have to call. If they don’t call, we don’t know about it.”
San Antonio’s ‘Sixth Street’
As visitors explore downtown San Antonio’s nightlife, officials are prepared to ensure order is maintained, even in areas north from where the Final Four activities take place.
The SAPD downtown unit has had to add nearly a dozen bike officers to patrol a stretch of bars on North Alamo Street, said to be the “new Sixth Street” of San Antonio, a reference to Austin’s legendary bar-lined street.
“We’ve been making quite a few arrests for overserving, for over intoxication, for fighting, we had a shooting a month ago,” he said. “We’re hiring on overtime to increase our presence to also extend to that area in downtown.
They’re trying to make that the new Sixth Street of San Antonio, so we’re trying to push back and make sure that if they’re going to do it, they do it safely. As soon as people come out and try to start fighting, we’re making arrests every Friday and Saturday.”
After visits from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) and the city’s code compliance, said Centro San Antonio Chief of Staff Priscilla Lopez, bar owners are meeting once a week with Centro and District 1 and are willing to work with SAPD.
Like the ones on Sixth Street in Austin, Bexar County Commissioners on March 11 approved the purchase of eight crowd barriers that can be used during high traffic events.
The median barriers, requested by the county’s Office of Emergency Management, protect pedestrians and crowds from vehicles.
The barriers had a price tag of $103,000 and have been ordered, but will not arrive in time for the Final Four or Fiesta events, a county spokeswoman said on Thursday.
