Since November 18, 2009, our uniformed Safety Ambassadors have been patrolling the commercial corridor on bikes.  Their primary goal is to provide a safe corridor for the business community, customers, visitors, and neighborhood residents. As you read on, you will recognize that our Safety Ambassadors are involved in more than crime deterrence and prevention.

During the past year, retail thefts were the most prevalent reported crime incident. Most of these incidents resulted in arrests by the stores’ loss prevention officers and sometimes required the assistance of the ambassadors.  The ambassadors maintain an excellent working relationship with many of the loss prevention officers and exchange information relative to current trends and concerns.

Specifically, the ambassadors patrol all of the parking lots in order to deter theft of property from autos and auto thefts while being highly visible to the businesses, customers, and other visitors. In order to ensure that all areas of the business corridor are patrolled during their random patrols, the safety ambassadors conduct focused tours which require them to hit front and rear electronic buttons.

They continue to liaison with the 24th District police officers. They have assumed traffic control duties when arriving at the scene of many auto accidents. They have come upon individuals in need of medical assistance and promptly notified 911 providing whatever assistance was necessary until help arrived. They have even quelled disturbances before they escalated into major incidents. They have also deterred homeless people from panhandling and “camping out” near the sidewalk areas allowing un-interrupted pedestrian traffic flow.

Finally, the Safety Ambassadors regularly visit many of the businesses to discuss their concerns relative to the prevention of crime and disorder. This maintains open lines of communication with the store owners, managers and employees. All stores and businesses have the Ambassadors’ direct contact numbers.  The ambassadors have also been used to deliver pertinent information relative to upcoming community and business meetings. As part of their customer service duties, they have provided store locations to visitors and directions to lost motorists.

As an outcome of their involvement, the Safety Ambassadors continue to be a strong asset to the Aramingo Business Improvement District.

In summary, our designated Aramingo crew of 4 full-time maintenance workers sweep, pick up litter, control debris, collect tires and remove short dumps along the commercial strip on a daily basis from Monday to Friday.  The crew routinely receives support from City-Wide Sanitation department when extra assistance is needed to remove large items and the many tires illegally dumped. Since 2009, we have removed over 5,000 bags of litter, over 100 short dumps (furniture, mattresses etc.) and hundreds of tires from the commercial strip during this past year. Our daily cleaning logs signed by store management continue to provide accolades of favorable comments for the crew and appreciation for a difficult job.