Downtown Partnership proposes 19-month "clean and safe" pilot to expand security, ambassadors and outreach

The Downtown Partnership on Monday asked City Council to support a 19-month downtown "clean and safe" pilot that would nearly triple supplemental security coverage, add hospitality ambassadors and fund dedicated outreach staff to respond immediately to people in need.

Pat Rigdon, director of downtown safety and public space management, and Chelsea Gondek, interim CEO of the Downtown Partnership, said disturbances, merchant requests for assistance and citations tied to sit/lie enforcement have increased since 2019 while recorded interactions with people experiencing homelessness decreased when supplemental security is present. "We want to be data-driven and human-centered," Rigdon said, adding the pilot is meant to test tactics locally and recommend a long-term approach if successful.

Pilot design calls for: expanded supplemental security shifts (covering early-morning sweeps at 6 a.m. through evening hours), two teams of two officers on peak days, six ambassadors for hospitality and wayfinding, and a small outreach team (two full-time, one part-time) to partner with Homeward Pikes Peak and other providers. The outreach workers would form care teams that can offer services immediately when individuals are willing to accept help; Elizabeth Lisberger, a Bloomberg Harvard fellow working on the project, said Homeward Pikes Peak is the principal outreach partner.

The Partnership estimated a pilot budget of about $2 million: roughly $1 million targeted to clean-and-safe operations (security and ambassadors), $500,000 to outreach, and the remainder for communications and legal costs. Presenters said they have "just under" $1 million secured so far and that the Downtown Development Authority and Urban Renewal Authority have committed about $600,000 to date; they asked the Council to consider additional public funding and to help connect with private funders.

Presenters emphasized coordination with the Colorado Springs Police Department (CSPD). Rigdon said daily communications, a downtown public-safety steering committee that includes the police chief, and an expanded cadence of operational coordination would let security, outreach and CSPD avoid duplication and act quickly when police intervention is required.

Council members pressed for more detail. Councilmember Hingham asked where outreach would take people; Lisberger identified Homeward Pikes Peak as the primary service partner and said the care teams are intended to make immediate, not delayed, connections to services. Councilmember Bailey asked about data collection and whether increased reporting might inflate incident counts; presenters said security contractors already log incident reports with timestamps and categories and the Partnership is normalizing historic records to compare baseline trends.

Several councilmembers raised public-restroom and sanitation concerns. Staff reported that, outside Acacia Park, no additional public restrooms are currently planned, though administration is discussing facility improvements and opportunities to better staff and manage existing restrooms. Rigdon and council members stressed the need to align restroom strategy with outreach and maintenance plans if new facilities are pursued.

Rigdon and Gondek described the pilot as nimble: tactics and staffing levels would be adjusted based on ongoing data and feedback from a downtown task force of business and community leaders. At the pilot's conclusion, the Partnership intends to present a recommendation on whether to continue, scale, spin off to a contractor or discontinue the program.

Speakers quoted in this story: Pat Rigdon, director of downtown safety and public space management; Chelsea Gondek, interim CEO, Downtown Partnership; Elizabeth Lisberger, Bloomberg Harvard fellow (project data/policy lead).