Downtown Kissimmee is developing a vibrant nightlife district. It has also seen a corresponding uptick in violent crime.
As a response to recent incidents, the city of Kissimmee held a town hall-style meeting last week to hear the concerns of patrons who visit, residents who live nearby, business owners who serve them and city commissioners and staff.
It’s been on the minds of all of them since a shooting at a Dakin Avenue bar on June 4 left a person injured and stakeholders wondering what is leading to the violent uptick.
City Manager Mike Steigerwald said the meeting was a chance to discuss “perception versus reality.”
Kissimmee Police Chief Betty Holland said her agency has four to seven officers patrolling the downtown area between 12-3 a.m.
“Just because you may not see one in a marked patrol car doesn’t mean there isn’t someone down there,” she said. “We try to get ahead of disturbances that may happen as patrons leave.”
KPD studied violent crime calls in an area bordered by Stewart Avenue, Neptune Road, Church Street and Pleasant Street. Three aggravated assaults were logged in June, resulting in two arrests, in the Dakin Street area at Breeze Bar and 2 Brothers restaurant. All were in the late nighttime hours.
Reports of shots fired came on Feb. 5 and March 20, both in the 2 a.m. hour, where spent shell casings were found but shooters weren’t identified.
It came to a head following the June 4 shooting. A man was arrested when, during an altercation at the Breeze bar on Dakin Street, he fired a shot that struck an employee when asked to leave following a disturbance.
State law does not allow firearms in certain establishments, like barswhich get the bulk of their revenue from alcohol being consumed on site.
“We need to be aware of this,” Holland said, noting the new state law allowing “constitutional carry” of firearms without permits likely has led to more people carrying firearms on a regular basis.
Holland did say during the meeting that “Officer initiated” calls are on track to be higher this year than last year. While Kissimmee Police say they have patrols for the area on weekend nights, some business owners have hired their own extra security, but at $50 per hour, while Holland said it has succeeded in enhancing safety, it can be cost-prohibitive for smaller businesses.
Ray Parsons, who owns Breeze and another establishment soon to open in the old Makinson Hardware building, said they’d hired officers two nights a week after the June shooting to add security to make patrons feel safer.
“It’s been working well,” he said. “We asked the officers to walk around Dakin and have a street presence, to get familiar with managers and repeat customers, and who they might want to look out for. It’s kind of expensive, Breeze only has about 40 seats, we get them from 10 to 2, but it’s been worth it so far. Others have offered to help pay for it, right now I just wanted to get a presence there without a lot of meetings after that incident. All the other merchants seem to be on board with this program.”
Others said that noise is an issue, as some patrons leave bars at closing time, but don’t leave the area and play loud music creating noise to, and beyond, 3 a.m. The city has recently put a new noise ordinance in place that is more enforceable than the one it replaced. Commissioner Janette Martinez echoed the concern of others who spoke and said much of the problem comes from “floaters” who come from out of Kissimmee to create problems.
“Our police department is just down the street. Can we just keep using our officers without putting that burden on our merchants?” she asked.
Commissioner Carlos Alvarez recommended merchants to have “No firearms allowed” signage.
Steigerwald said the idea of setting an earlier closing time for those establishments, from 2 a.m. to, say, midnight, wouldn’t resolve the issues of gun violence. Parsons said that, if it was a chronic problem, in might be a good idea, but now it’s more important to let businesses make revenue during the later hours.
“We don’t have the violent crime numbers to shut the street down and have officers wanding people at each end, or requiring businesses to hire security,” Steigerwald said.
The city manager said his takeaway from the meeting was that the Commission wants to find additional resources to increase the police presence, such as using Community Redevelopment Act funds to pay for more police, without burdens on businesses, and that he’d take direction from city commissioners to look at ways to address issues brought up.
