Holding an iPad and wearing a black and yellow polo shirt, Jasmine Coley walked along a stretch of Connecticut Avenue in Northwest on Thursday afternoon before stopping into Chocolate Chocolate.
It was a quick check-in with business co-owner Ginger Park, and it’s one of several shops along Coley’s route. She often asks business leaders what she can do to assist — and many of them appreciate her presence.
It’s rare that they ask for more than what the specialists are already doing, Coley said.
Within the Golden Triangle Business Improvement District, Coley is one of four specialists patrolling the area on weekdays. They’ve all worked as security guards and completed a series of active shooter, first aid and de-escalation trainings.
The roles are funded through city grants, and Mayor Muriel Bowser announced a new round of Safe Commercial Corridors grants this week. Twelve community groups, including the Golden Triangle BID, are getting about $2.1 million — more than double the grant amounts in fiscal 2024.
“It doesn’t just help the businesses with keeping people from taking things,” Coley said. “It doesn’t just help people with finding directions. It helps people restart their life, whether it’s me with getting a job or whether it’s someone else with getting a home.”
For Coley, the role varies day by day. Recently, she helped a woman, who’s legally blind, pick out the items she needed in 7-Eleven. She walked with her to make sure she was in the right place to find her Uber, too.
When she comes across unhoused individuals, she helps connect them with resources. Many of them take advantage of it, Coley said.
“Seeing them go from being here to saying, ‘Hey, I’m getting ready to move into my place,’ or ‘They just gave me a cell phone’ — it literally makes me want to cry,” Coley said.
Leona Agouridis, CEO of the Golden Triangle BID, said the public safety specialists are often the first people on the scene in the event of a medical emergency. In the last nine months, they’ve helped with several, calling the appropriate city agencies.
If roads are closed, the specialists help drivers navigate around the perimeters.
The specialists help complement law enforcement, Agouridis said, because “police do not have to be the answer to everything.”
“Not only does it improve the perception of safety and safety overall, but also provides that intangible, where people know that they have a community that’s behind this and that we’re all together here,” Agouridis said.
Park, the Chocolate Chocolate co-owner, said having the specialists present and eager to help “makes me feel very safe.”
The most recent round of grants, Bowser’s office said in a news release, will help businesses improve security and be involved with the CameraConnect program. They’ll help business owners offer training to staff, too.
Lindsey Appiah, D.C.’s deputy mayor for public safety and justice, said investing in community-based patrol specialists allows police to focus on efforts to deter violent crime.
“We believe that we want our officers to be most efficient and effective at handling crime,” Appiah said, “so when there are other issues like our businesses need support for lifestyle or trash or quality of life issues, our community safety ambassadors are really helping us to address that by being eyes and ears.”
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