PSPD work with bar owners to prevent violent crimes

The Palm Springs Police Department hosted a town hall meeting in an effort to prevent violent crimes at local bars, after several shootings in the past few years.

With more than 200 businesses that serve alcohol in the city, PSPD officers say they’re working to increase communication between local businesses in order to identify and eliminate potential issues.

“What we’ve seen is kind of an escalation in violence,” PSPD personnel explained at Tuesday’s town hall meeting.

PSPD have responded to more than 4,600 calls regarding violent crimes over the past two and a half years. 12 percent of those calls were from bars.

“A lot of concern was brought up following the revocation of Zeldas’ conditional use permit, so we just want to make sure everyone is aware of our concerns, and we just really want to work together,” said Captain Mike Kovaleff.

Zeldas, the long-time night club, was shut down by the city of Palm Springs after several security code violations and violent crimes.

“We’re asking you to be the eyes and the ears and make those notifications being proactive, so we can all work together,” said one PSPD officer at the meeting.

Officers discussed tips on how to better security plans.

“Each place is going to be unique and different and that’s what I’m going to talk to you about,” explained one officer.

Representatives from the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control were also in attendance.

“If there are any questions we are willing to help out,” said San Ramon with ABC.

All entities at the meeting shared a goal to keep customers safe.

“We want to make sure that all our patrons know that going to down town Palm Springs is safer than anything,” said Oscar Babb, owner of Moxie Palm Springs and Broken Yolk.

Business owners in attendance and PSPD agreed to meet quarterly to better their communication and prevent violence.

“I would like to see this [meetings] to continue and I saw a lot of people getting interested and I think if the police department and our particular part of the economy get together, then I think we will lower the criminal that like to come to this town, because they’re not going to get anywhere. We’re going to get them,” said Larry Bitonti, owner of Hair of the Dog English Pub and Sports Hall.