Will security calm Kennedy Plaza?

There’s a new sheriff in town. Well, not really. But the R.I. Public Transit Authority has hired a private security firm to monitor activity at Kennedy Plaza in Providence, drawing attention from both businesses and advocates.

“It’s long overdue and much needed,” said former Providence Mayor Joseph R. Paolino Jr., whose real estate firm Paolino Properties LP is located next to Kennedy Plaza.

In front of City Hall and adjacent to Burnside Park, Kennedy Plaza is a travel hub designated for RIPTA and other bus services and a popular public area for the city’s homeless to congregate. Add in the thousands of people passing through in transit each day and it’s easily one of the most bustling areas of the city.

Paolino, a vocal critic on such issues as panhandling, public smoking and drug usage, argues that the district’s unruliness begets illicit behavior, which is bad for downtown businesses.

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“Kennedy Plaza has multiple problems,” he said.

The Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless, however, has more tempered views about the district and the new security service, Pennsylvania-based AlliedBarton Security Services LLC, and raises concerns about how the homeless will be treated moving forward.

“I think it’s clear that this is a place where people congregate, and that’s a touchy issue for folks,” said LeeAnn Byrne, policy director for the coalition.

Rhode Island in 2012 was the first state in the country to enact a Homeless Bill of Rights, which – among other things – provides everyone, regardless of housing status, the equal right to move freely in public spaces without discrimination.

“I think our view is always that when there’s a social-service issue we should have a social-service intervention rather than a criminal intervention,” Byrne said.

RIPTA estimates roughly 32,000 people converge at Kennedy Plaza each day, which Providence Police Department Col. Hugh T. Clements Jr. says creates a lot of “nuisance activity.” He expects the security service to benefit the police and downtown businesses.

“Anytime you have people out there acting [out], if they see someone in uniform they may think twice,” he said.

The new service comes just months after Mayor Jorge O. Elorza ordered police to stop enforcing a ban on “aggressive panhandling,” which the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island argues violates free-speech rights. The city also stopped enforcing a penalty on people who loiter on bus-line property.

Paolino, who calls the new service a “good first step,” says more needs to be done for the area, blaming current lawmakers for the general lack of shelter, food and drug treatment that’s available for the city’s homeless.

“It’s not complicated,” he said. “Anyone in elected office who says it’s complicated doesn’t belong in office.” •

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