Eyes and Ears: UVA deploys their own "safety" force on the Downtown Mall
Eyes and Ears: UVA deploys their own "safety" force on the Downtown Mall
City Manager Michael Rogers informed City Council about the UVA plan via email before a March 20 City Council meeting.
While a pair of stories last week from NBC29 and CBS19 about UVA deploying "Safety Ambassadors" on the Downtown Mall featured comments from UVA spokespersons, even UVA president Jim Ryan, one thing was strangely absent - comments from Charlottesville City officials.
According to Charlottesville City spokesperson David Dillehunt, City Manager Michael Rogers informed City Council about the UVA plan via email before a March 20 City Council meeting, but there appears to have been no public discussion about the new security plan before it was rolled out on April 1. Dillehunt says that during discussions between UVA, Charlottesville, and Albemarle County law enforcement agencies regarding recent gun violence, UVA, through UVA Police Chief Tim Longo, offered to extend their Safety Ambassador program to the Downtown Mall and absorb the cost, which Dillehunt said was $200,000 annually.
At a UVA Board of Vistors meeting last month, Longo announced that the UVA Ambassador program was being extended into other neighborhoods, but a UVAToday story on the meeting mentioned nothing about the Downtown Mall. Later in the month, at a community forum, Longo revealed the Ambassador program would be extended “down West Main Street toward the Downtown Mall and south of UVa Medical Center in the area adjacent to Cherry Avenue,” according to the Daily Progress.
"The proposal was sent to us by the City Manager, asking for comments and concerns," says Charlottesville Mayor Lloyd Snook, who didn't express any concerns, saying the unarmed Ambassadors would simply be another set of “eyes and ears” on the street for the police. “I don't see any likelihood of harm, and I do see some likelihood of benefit," Snook said.
Not exactly a ringing endorsement of the program. No other Councilors responded to questions about the new program before this story was posted.
“They are only “eyes and ears” and can report criminal activity if it comes to their attention,” says Charlottesville Police Chief Michael Kochis, pointing out, as Snook did, that the Ambassadors have no special police powers.
Indeed, the Ambassadors can’t do anything a concerned citizen couldn’t do with a cell phone, although Kochis mentioned the Ambassadors have radios they use to communicate directly with their command posts, who have a direct line to the police. One might wonder, given the fact that there are now security cameras on the Downtown Mall and there’s already a police station is located there, why the UVA Ambassadors were even necessary.
Back in 2012, the city discussed at length and launched its own Downtown Mall Ambassador program designed to address safety concerns and be, you guessed it, the “eyes and ears” of the police. Indeed, a DP headline read “Ambassadors a second set of eyes and ears on the Downtown Mall.”
However, Charlottesville police Chief Tim Longo (yes, same Longo) had concerns with the program more than a year after it started.
“I consider the ambassadors program a work-in-progress,” Longo told the Daily Progress. “I think if City Council decides to continue the program, we need to take a step back from it.”
At the time, Longo wanted budget money to go toward hiring more police officers to patrol the mall. He also suggested the Ambassadors lacked training and that it wasn’t clear enough they weren’t Charlottesville police. One issue was the CPD logos on the golf carts and tables the Ambassadors used.
One of the more notable Downtown Mall Ambassadors at the time was Ida Lewis, the then 86-year-old former Charlottesville sheriff’s deputy, who passed away in 2020.
“We’ve had an influence because the folks who are causing trouble know we’re going to come around,” Lewis told the DP in 2015. “They know we’re watching… and we’ll be coming and we don’t mind bringing officers with us.”
But in 2016, then City Manager Maurice Jones cut the Downtown Mall Ambassadors program from the 2017 fiscal year budget. Instead, funds were allocated to provide "hospitality and customer service training" to "parking enforcement officers" to help "make the downtown area feel more welcoming to visitors," according to a story in the Daily Progress.
Chief Longo, however, appeared more enthusiastic about UVA’s Ambassadors when he made his announcement to the BOV, calling them a “force multiplier for local law enforcement” that could complement Charlottesville’s policing efforts. Indeed, it was presented as one of many ways UPD, CPD, and ACPD were working together to address public concern about increasing gun violence. Since September last year, 14 people have been shot and killed in Charlottesville and Albemarle County, including three UVA football players, while 22 others have been wounded.
Of course, considering UVA’s vast resources, offering people with radios to watch over a small business section of the city might not seem like much.
UVA currently contracts with a private company called RMC Events, Inc. for its Ambassador program, which began in 2015. UVA originally hired a UK-based international security firm with the James Bondesque name G4S, which has been embroiled in a number of high-profile scandals, including having hired the Pulse nightclub shooter as a security guard, to run the Ambassadors program. In 2019, Virginia awarded G4S a $7 million contract to transport involuntarily patients to psychiatric hospitals, a service typically handled by local police.
RMC Events, Inc, familiar to those who attend events at UVA or the Ting Pavillion, is a Richmond-based company that hires, trains, deploys and manages licensed unarmed security personnel. For UVA’s Ambassador program, they patrol on foot, bicycle, and by vehicle and act as, you guessed it again, “eyes and ears” for police. They are also required to complete UPD “scenario-based training” and basic CIT (Crisis Intervention Training) training within 180 days of starting the job. Unlike Ambassadors in the city’s past program, who only patrolled during the day and early evening, UVA’s Ambassadors patrol late at night. Ambassadors are paid between $18 and $19 per hour, according to a recent job listing.
There’s a daily log on the UVA Ambassador’s website listing highlighted incidents reported to EMS, UPD, and CPD by the Ambassadors, such as “unauthorized drone” at the Rotunda, gunshots on Cherry Avenue, drinking in public on 14th Street, an unsecured vehicle left running on University Avenue, and “aggravated male” at the Flats on West Main, among others.
UVA Ambassadors also offer information and directions and act as walking escorts. However, Chief Kochis says the UVA Ambassadors won’t be offering walking escorts on the Downtown Mall.
Asked by the DP what authority the UVA Ambassadors would have downtown, who they would be accountable to, and who exactly they would be representing, Kochis again emphasized that they were not police and had limited authority.
However, as Ms. Lewis said, even an 86-year-old Ambassador had "influence" because people knew they were watching and they would be "bringing officers with us."
And speaking of eyes, and as technolgy advances, ears and who knows what…
Back in 2007, Chief Longo championed a $300,000 plan to install closed-circuit TV cameras on and around the Downtown Mall which would allow police to monitor activity from a centralized location. Again, it was an effort to address safety concerns on the mall at the time. Councilors at the time balked at the idea of a centrally located surveillance system and suggested installing individual cameras, but before the end of the year, a majority of councilors were against the idea entirely. In 2016, Longo presented another plan for 36 cameras on light poles from the Omni Hotel to the Pavilion (“Longo’s legacy: Cameras coming to a mall and cop near you”), but again there was concern and pushback, particularly from civil liberties organizations, like the Charlottesville-based Rutherford Institute, but in recent years public concern about the “surveillance state” has clearly diminished.
In 2018, after the trauma of the Unite the Right rally the summer before, the City quietly installed seven security cameras on the east end of the mall. And downtown business leaders have continued to push for a privately funded network of cameras on the mall. Of course, businesses are free to install video cameras, and Charlottesville Insider's webcam has become a favorite. UVA also went to work installing more security cameras.
At a virtual UVA town hall concerning recent gun violence last month, Longo revealed that “2,000 cameras positioned on and off grounds” allowed police to track the movements of Lakori Brooks, who allegedly shot and killed Cody Brian Smith on Elliewood Avenue on March 18. Longo also said that UVA was installing new surveillance cameras "almost daily" along with new construction projects.
So, as UVA extends its security coverage via Ambassadors into more neighborhoods in Charlottesville, could the “eyes and ears” of its growing surveillance system also be deemed a “force multiplier” for assisting local police?
If so, count on Charlottesville city officials and local citizens being the last to know.
Updated 4.13.23
I wonder if they receive racial bias training since they report "suspicious" activity to the police.