05-28-08 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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Of the five incidents, there was only one case where a suspect was still at the scene when squads arrived. While it's not unusual for suspects to leave quickly before squads arrive, we found that in two of the incidents, assault victims told deputies that restaurant staff encouraged the suspects to leave before police arrived. In one of those cases, the victim delayed reporting the assault for several days in part because a restaurant management person told him that he'd better leave because "you're bruised. We called the police and they'll arrest you." There is no record of Bangkok Avenue management calling police on the night of the fight. In the other instance, the victim claimed that the restaurant security staff did nothing to prevent him from being assaulted and, in fact, "hustled" the assailants away before squads arrived. When deputies arrived at that incident, the security staff initially denied knowledge of any fight, but later acknowledged that there was a fight, but that everyone involved had left. None of the fights that were called in to our dispatch center were called in by complainants identifying themselves as restaurant employees. None of the calls were from the Bangkok Avenue telephone number. In none of the reports did restaurant staff provide deputies with any suspect information. The other incidents reported in the last six months included three criminal damage to property cases where the victims' cars in the parking lot were vandalized while they were inside patronizing Bangkok Avenue. Two victims had their windows smashed, while one had her tires slashed. There was also a domestic assault that occurred at the restaurant and a DUI arrest of a suspect who was racing through a crowd in the parking lot. In the DUI incident, the passenger in the car was a known gang member and convicted felon. There were also shotgun parts found in the car. As previously stated, we have significant concerns about the security situation at the Bangkok Restaurant. We make the following recommendations to improve the security situation at the restaurant. - Increase staffing and staff training to the point where employees can adequately monitor the consumption of alcohol to limit over consumption by patrons and to prevent access to alcohol by minors. - ID patrons at the door and issue wristbands to differentiate those patrons who are over 21 and those who are under 21. - Sell alcohol on a one unit to one patron basis. - Sell beer in plastic cups or bottles to prevent the use of beer bottles as weapons. - Increase security staffing and training to the point where they can intervene and prevent fights by ejecting disruptive patrons.