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| | | H Street NE police detail under threat | | February 19, 2010 | | | By | Paul D. Shinkman
and Katie Pearce |
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| | Voice Correspondents | | The weekend police force on H Street NE might be shrinking next month as the neighborhood’s most prominent bar owner fights to build two 99-seat roof decks.
For the last few months, a group of H Street business owners
has chipped in to pay for increased police presence in the neighborhood, which has recently been home to a spate of assaults and carjackings. Nearly half the money for the four officers comes from Joe Englert, who owns five popular bars on H Street.
With Englert now saying he can’t afford to continue paying for the officers, 1st District police Cmdr. David Kamperin said he plans to cut the program to two officers temporarily.
Englert said his money will be tied up in legal fees as he tries to win the right to build roof decks atop the Rock & Roll Hotel and the H Street Country Club. Nearby resident Bobby Pittman has filed a protest with the D.C. Alcoholic Beverage Control Board opposing Englert’s plans.
“The people Bobby [Pittman]’s targeting are the big guys, but it affects the little ones,” Englert said, referencing the other H Street venues that would be burdened with extra expenses for the police detail if he pulls out.
Pittman did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The security program, known as “reimbursable police detail,” pays off-duty Metropolitan Police Department officers $55.71 per hour to work Thursday through Sunday nights. In the program, which is active in neighborhoods across the city, the Alcoholic Beverage Control Administration pays half the cost, matching the amount local businesses contribute.
Kamperin stressed in an e-mail to the Voice the importance of the additional police presence the details offer, particularly along H Street.
“It decreases the use of on-duty personnel having to respond to the venues along the corridor,” he wrote. “This keeps the officers in the [H Street neighborhood] and available to respond to emergency calls for service as needed.”
Skip Coburn, executive director of the DC Nightlife Association, helped organize the police detail on H Street late last year. Twelve establishments in all have contributed money to pay for the officers, including Englert’s other bars — the Argonaut, Granville Moore’s and The Red and the Black. Coburn said that with Englert’s withdrawal, seven of the 12 have indicated they will not be able to pay for the officers in March.
Pittman has expressed concern that the roof decks and the outdoor crowds they would accommodate would create problems with noise, parking and safety. He also said they could potentially hurt the neighborhood’s property values. Resident Pittman filed his protest against Englert’s roof deck plans as an officer of the Linden Neighborhood Association.
At a protest hearing Tuesday, the alcohol board deemed his protest legally valid, according to agency spokesperson Cynthia Simms.
Pittman last week unsuccessfully ran for a seat on the Northeast Capitol Hill advisory neighborhood commission (ANC 6A), which incorporates the H Street corridor.
The neighborhood commission has voted to support both roof decks with some restrictions. | | | | | Log in to comment on this article |
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