Chief asks for residents' help at beach

Despite cutbacks, parking controls and a volunteer patrol will keep Clearwater Beach safe, he says.

By MONIQUE FIELDS

© St. Petersburg Times,
published August 10, 2001

CLEARWATER -- As promised, Clearwater police Chief Sid Klein attended a Clearwater Beach Chamber of Commerce meeting this week armed with two challenges for residents.

One, he proposed establishing a 15-member volunteer beach patrol for the area. And two, he suggested Clearwater beach business owners pay for their customers' evening parking.

Both suggestions came after a brawl at McDonald's July 13 left one man stabbed and another shot. Then residents heard about Klein's plan to reduce the number of police aides on the beach to help cut 2 percent from the Police Department budget. That, combined with the earlier incident, angered many residents.

Although the aides are not sworn officers and focus primarily on directing traffic and addressing parking issues, residents and business owners believe their presence deters crime.

At the meeting Tuesday, Klein called on residents to help fill the void expected to be left by the reduction in aides and pointed to a similar program on Sand Key that has met with great success. Residents would likely fill four-hour shifts in all-terrain vehicles, on bicycles and on foot, while the Police Department would provide training and uniforms.

"To make it work, I made it clear I would need their support to help me promote it and to help me recruit volunteers," Klein said Thursday.

The group of men and women would be called the Clearwater Beach Volunteer Patrol and would primarily enhance police visibility and act as extra sets of eyes and ears for the police, he said.

His second suggestion would address parking and cruising.

Klein's idea would require visitors to pay for parking as they enter the parking lot on Gulfview Boulevard S. They would would pay a significant parking fee, receive a receipt and then take it to area merchants for reimbursement. The recommendation, Klein said, would divert young people who aren't planning to buy anything from area merchants to the parking lot near Pier 60, making it easier for fewer officers to patrol them.

"If we're going to have a meaningful impact on the clientele that are coming to those parking lots in the evening hours, this would be a way to do it," he said.

Chamber members are open to both ideas, said Lou Piano, president of the Clearwater Beach Chamber of Commerce.

Al Cole supported the idea so much he immediately volunteered to patrol the beach. He completed an application Wednesday morning, submitted fingerprints and is awaiting word for an interview.

"I'm retired and I don't mind helping out," said Cole, 62.

But some business owners and residents question whether the recommendations can work.

Piano, for one, is concerned that the beach patrol may not attract enough volunteers who will want to deal with teens. Each weekend, hundreds of young people jam sidewalks and clog streets as they saunter up and down the beach.

"I don't think the right type of person will volunteer because of the amount of teens present on the beach. It works very well in Sand Key because it's a different animal."

Others fear volunteers will jeopardize their safety.

"I would not want to be a volunteer knowing I would have to patrol and do the job of an officer," said Tina Pimenidis, an owner of Koli-Bree Motel Apartments and Pimenidis Realty. She, like others, wants to see more sworn police officers in the area.

Critics say the parking validation idea has several problems.

Young people, they say, will outsmart the program and go through the trouble to buy an inexpensive item to get their tickets validated. One possible solution would be to require a minimum purchase in order to get the parking fee waived. But that presents another dilemma.

"That would run customers off the beach," said Tony Markopoulos, who owns several businesses on Clearwater Beach, including a Days Inn. "People don't like for people to tell them how much to spend."

Klein admits the parking validation idea isn't completely refined and called for a survey of business owners before any decisions are made.

As for the beach patrol, he said the volunteers will be trained not to intervene in dangerous situations. The volunteers won't carry guns and couldn't enforce the law. They will be trained how to use their radios to call for help from sworn officers.

And the Police Department has already boosted the number of police officers on the beach indefinitely. Klein assigned the Community Problem Response team to Clearwater Beach after the July 13 brawl. One sergeant and four veteran police officers work the detail, and the department recently purchased bikes for them so they will be mobile as well as visible.

"We'll keep them as long as we can, recognizing we have other hot spots in the city," Klein said.

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