ORLANDO, Fla. — Orlando police may soon have more officers patrolling the streets of downtown; however, Channel 9’s Shannon Butler found out there’s still a lot of unanswered questions surrounding the idea.
The city has been doing a nighttime entertainment study to figure out what downtown needs to not only be a thriving area, but also a safe one.
In all, up to 95 officers are on duty every night, every weekend in downtown Orlando.
There are currently 12 officers on duty; an additional 12 officers from a downtown unit also help patrol. Then there are 50 to 70 off-duty officers patrolling the clubs.
Up to 20,000 people go downtown every weekend.
City leaders said more studies need to be done to determine how many officers are needed.
“I think we should establish some kind of metric or some kind of legislation or something, so we would have at least a minimum of 'X' amount of police officers depending on the number of patrons that you have at your establishment,” said City Commissioner Tony Ortiz.
The city can’t force businesses to have security, and some of the businesses told the city that they don't want more regulations or to be forced to spend money they don't have.
The study is also looking at adding a bike fire department unit to help with injuries.
Another idea is to bring in nightlife manager who would make $100,000 a year to facilitate the recommendations in a new nightlife entertainment study. The manager would act as a liason between the city and the bars.
Cox Media Group
