Residents in San Jose spoke out about a growing open-air drug market, prompting the city to act. And on Tuesday, they gathered with the mayor and police for a discussion about resources and a plan of attack.
"Adding community service officers to supplement our downtown walking patrols,” said Mayor Matt Mahan.
HOA leaders and community members are following the new initiative to disrupt the open-air drug market in San Francisco, and are concerned San Jose will become its new home.
“Now we're seeing a lot of new faces coming here and if we don’t take actions right now with arrests,” said a resident.
Mahan said that’s why the city’s being proactive with increased patrols, but that’s just the beginning.
“Police response does not solve all of our problems, we need to house people, we need to train people to get them into jobs, we need more treatment to be in-patient treatment options,” said Mahan.
In just the last year, SJPD has made over 4,600 drug related arrests -- 439 of those were downtown.
But they can’t arrest everyone, particularly those using drugs.
“We’ve had a very large presence downtown, I think we’ve been impactful, you've heard tonight, neighbors appreciative of the greater visibility of the police department. To the extent we are able to do that, we will continue,” said SJPD Assistant Chief Paul Joseph.
Since NBC Bay Area’s reporting, residents say they’ve seen an increase in arrests.
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
One of those led to an hours-long standoff just days ago.
“I think it's a very good start but it also encourages neighbors to be more actively involved in the community,” said downtown resident, Patrice Smith.
“If we keep this momentum together, it's going to make a big difference,” said downtown resident, Nicole Griffin.
Mayor Mahan said these types of meetings will continue but next is meeting with policy makers -- something he said the community needs to be a part of.
