OLD PORT

Who bears cop costs?

By Noah Bruce

Though it made no formal decision on the matter at their meeting April 4, the Portland City Council Safety Committee was leaning towards forcing Old Port business owners to pay to help defray the costs of policing their neighborhood.

Unlike all the other neighborhoods in Portland, which have one beat cop assigned to them 24 hours a day, the Old Port requires much greater coverage, especially during summer months. Last summer, in addition to the beat cop, the PPD added one officer on foot patrol during the day, two in the evenings, and six during weekend nights. Tack onto that mounted officers that patrol the area between 3 and 11 p.m., plain clothes officers who check up on the bars, and two community policemen stationed on Congress Street who oversee the Old Port as part of their territory, and you’ve got a lot of billable hours for one piece of real estate.

Chief Chitwood said at the meeting that similar coverage will cost the PD over $100,000 between May and September of this year, a year when the department has been asked to cut its expenses to help the city meet its budgetary shortfall.

The financial burden has caused Safety Committee members to question who should pay for all this police coverage and if it’s even necessary in the first place.

Karen Geraghty, a member of the committee, told the Phoenix, “This level of police coverage is excessive. The coverage just goes up every year. Where does it stop? How much is going to be enough?”

Deputy Chief Bill Ridge, who testified before the committee, agrees. “I think probably the amount of coverage provided in the Old Port right now is more than I would say needs to be there from a public safety standpoint,” he told the Phoenix. “I think it can be scaled back without risking a public safety issue.”

Chair of the Safety Committee Jack Dawson told business owners he felt they should have to pay extra for the extensive police coverage, but these costs could eventually be passed on to their customers.

The business owners were less than thrilled with the suggestion.

Ted Ney, president of the Old Port Retail and Restaurant Association (OPRA), and owner of Gallery 7, told the committee that businesses in the district already “carry a disproportionate share of the tax burden.” Ney said that though Portland’s downtown (including both the Old Port and the Arts District) occupies half of 1 percent of the land mass in Portland, it contributes 11 percent of the money in the city’s budget and provides 30 percent of its employment. Arguing that the Old Port benefits the entire city, Ney said the entire city should help pay for its police coverage.

Richard Pfeffer, owner of Gritty McDuff’s, agrees with Ney. Asked by O’Donnell if he would object to a $100 raise in his liquor license fee, Pfeffer said, “I wouldn’t fight it, but I would if it was much more than that because I don’t think it’s fair. I think it’s a general fund issue,” meaning all Portland citizens should help shoulder the burden.

Two questions remain. Will City Council reduce police coverage to the Old Port? Will business owners be asked to pay more than they already do? The answer on both counts will most likely be yes.

According to Deputy Chief Ridge, heavy nighttime police coverage in the area is a necessity to curb violence, but some of the daytime foot patrols enjoyed by businesses last summer may prove to be a “luxury” in “fiscally difficult times” like this year.

Geraghty told the Phoenix “I think there’s no question business owners will have to help pay for these services . . . Now we’re trying to figure out how you assess these charges.” Possible plans, Geraghty says, include jacking up the cost of all liquor licenses in the city, increasing the cost of liquor licenses only in the Old Port, and hitting up all Old Port business — bars, restaurants and retail establishments — to pay the cost of policing Portland’s liveliest neighborhood.