crime

While many Melbourne residents spent Labor Day weekend hunkering down for Hurricane Dorian, others had a different agenda.

On Wednesday, September 4, around 3:13 a.m, an unidentified individual broke the front windows to the Railroad Emporium in Downtown Melbourne, according to a Melbourne police report.

According to another Melbourne police report, there was an unrelated shooting on NASA Boulevard that same night.

These are just a few examples of crimes that tend to occur during storms.

Joshua Livasy, a senior in physics and a Melbourne native, said this issue needs to be solved.

“These storms have the potential to bring catastrophic damage to our communities as it is, but then you have people who use these disasters as a way to loot and vandalise local businesses,” Livasy said. “I think local law enforcement needs to find ways to keep a closer eye on the communities during these storms.”

Livasy also said he thinks keeping Downtown Melbourne safe and clean is very important not only to the city, but for the students of Florida Tech as well.

“Downtown Melbourne is not only a historical landmark here in Melbourne, it’s a place where many students here at Florida Tech go to enjoy themselves,” Livasy said. “But if the city of Melbourne doesn’t do a better job at keeping these communities safe, I think over time students won’t feel safe going there.”

However, other students, such as Jacob Mondoro, a sophomore in business management, think that regardless of what law enforcement tries, these kinds of crimes will continue to happen during hurricanes.

“Law enforcement can only do so much once the storm actually starts to affect us,” Mondoro said. “Once we start feeling the major effects of the storm, most of the local law enforcement does what we do and hunker down until it passes. It’s not until things calm down that responders start patrolling the communities again.”

Mondro also mentioned that the last thing business owners should have to worry about during a storm is whether or not their businesses are trying to be broken into.

“As a business owner, your concern in this time of crisis should be on whether or not the storm is going to cause damage, not if another person is going to damage your building,” Mondoro said.

With just a little over two months still left in the hurricane season, there’s still potential for more storms to come, and Livasy and Mondoro said they believe that local law enforcement needs to find better solutions for protecting these businesses and making the community a safer place to live.

Downtown Melbourne — a favorite spot among many Florida Tech students — is generally seen as a safe place to go out on a Friday night by students like Zachary Shelton.

Some bars in downtown Melbourne don’t have much security, but that’s because they don’t seem to need any, according to both bar owners and the students who go to their bars.

One bar, Iron Oak Post, is located in downtown Melbourne and doesn’t prevent anyone from entering since the establishment is not 21 and up.

Anne Fears co-owns Iron Oak Post with her husband Mike.

Fears said their bar and several others don’t have security, and she doesn’t see security within the bar as an issue since they don’t have many incidents.

Shelton has only had one poor experience at a bar where a bouncer checked his ID and let him in, but asked him to leave immediately due to full capacity.

“I was very sad,” Shelton said.

However, having no security isn’t the case for all of the bars downtown.

“Some places have their own security,” Fears said. “It is dependent on the atmosphere of the place, it seems.”

Shelton, a senior at Florida Tech, lists Iron Oak Post as one of his top three favorite bars.

“It’s a nice bar,” Shelton said. “It’s quiet. Usually there are college students there. People from my class like to go there.”

Fears said downtown Melbourne requires extra security and police for publicized events in order to ensure that everyone stays safe.

On rare occasions, concert promoters may bring their own security for smaller events involving one bar rather than the entirety of downtown.

So far this year, there have been 46 incidents resulting in police offenses or arrests, according to Melbourne Police records.

These vary from aggravated assault to trespassing, with drunk driving, liquor law violations and assault occurring most frequently.

However, Fears doesn’t see an issue since these offenses are handled and don’t affect the establishments.

“At this point, security seems fairly good outside,” Fears said.

Yet, the bar owner would like to see improvements to security, such as an information system in place that links all of the nightlife establishments for the incidents that do occur.

The system could report real-time security concerns like excessively drunk groups, people walking out on bar tabs, fights, thieves and predator alerts—which are Fears’ main concerns.

“I think if the police and bars worked together, and a normal system was in place, it could benefit,” Fears said.

Shelton also thinks downtown is safe, but acknowledges that not everyone may feel that way.

“Personally, yes, but I don’t think women do,” Shelton said.

According to Shelton, downtown has evolved to include more police presence and public awareness.

“There are less creepy old people,” Shelton said. “I guess they just don’t hang around there as much.”

Shelton agrees that downtown could still improve, such as only allowing ride-shares and taxis down Main Street, ultimately making it safer by preventing drunk driving.

“Luckily, downtown is safe 99 percent of the time, but as the population grows we may see an increase in problems,” Fears said.

Of the incidents listed in police records, only one occurred this August.

Hence, while the police have seemingly handled the incidents swiftly, safety is always a priority.

crime

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