Police, Businesses Join to Keep West Glen Town Center Fun and Safe

Incidents like the recent confrontation between off-duty  officers and  who fell asleep in a grassy area are becoming increasingly rare because of a partnership between management at and the .

Public drunkenness and some of the negative behavior that goes with it is troublesome – and, in the case where the individual had a loaded gun tucked into the waistband of his pants, unnerving – to the 200 or so residents of the mixed-use development along the growing Mills Civic Parkway corridor.

Police Sgt. Jason Bryan said police noticed an uptick in complaints about public drunkenness and fights about a year ago, especially on weekends. There are several nightclubs, bars and restaurants in the development and it’s easy for patrons to walk from place to place.

Because West Glen was developed as a “shop-work-live-play” planned community, it’s pedestrian friendly, making it easy for bar-hoppers to over-serve themselves as they walk, rather than drive, from place to place, Bryan said.

That’s human behavior, police acknowledge. In response, the police department used grant money to pay off-duty police officers to walk a beat in the entertainment district.

West Glen management was “very receptive” to the idea, Bryan said, and when the grant money ran out, bar owners chipped in to cover the program’s costs.

Police Exercise Discretion

Believe it or not, Bryan said, “police officers are not up there to arrest everyone they can get their hands on. They’re there to provide a safe environment.”

When arrests do occur, it's usually because the suspect argued with police, became physically aggressive or committed some other violation, he said. For example, Matthew Thomas Aeschliman, the 23-year-old West Des Moines man police had to prod awake last weekend, had a weapons charge as well as a public intoxication charge.

The community-based approach works because “there’s a good balance between cops, alcohol and people,” said John Krecek, West Glen’s property manager. In other words, it’s not good for business if law enforcement is seen as the “fun police,” but neither is it good for business if people have to weave their way through passed-out drunks.

“It can be tough because a lot of people have a negative attitude toward police, but when we’re having an event or it’s just people out in the community,” Krecek said. “I’m looking out the window right now and I’m counting 23 people out walking their dogs, a couple of other people milling around, and a farmers' market. They want to feel like they’re safe without those knuckleheads.”

He said police exercise the right amount of discretion.

“If you’ve got a smart and mature crowd, things work out,” Krecek said. “I don’t think police want to hassle people who are being good patrons and who are being conscientious.”

Bryan said he’s “very, very confident” that alcohol-related crimes at West Glen have declined, though he said it’s hard to measure because some incident reports stem from a complaint called from dispatch, others from the off-duty officers’ observations and not all result in arrests.