Plano City Council voted this week to provide funding for two additional police officers in the downtown district. In a regular meeting on Monday, Feb. 23, the council members approved an ordinance to transfer $189,210 from the city's general fund to pay for the new police officers and the operational costs related to the department's Neighborhood Patrol Officer Program for the 2014-15 fiscal year. Neighborhood patrol officers, or NPOs, are regular sworn officers who work a smaller residential or business district. Often these officers work on foot, bikes or segways, and receive additional training based on their style of policing, police spokesperson David Tilley said. The officers are expected to start within a year to 18 months depending on the hiring and training process. Nightlife spurs demand Currently there is one officer assigned to downtown Plano, the same number assigned there in 2002, Plano Police Chief Greg Rushin said. At this time, nightlife had just started to pick up with the opening of the Dallas Area Rapid Transit rail station. Since then the area has grown, as housing developments are on the rise and more than a dozen restaurants and bars now dot the K Avenue corridor. Having three NPOs assigned downtown would allow one to take the day shift, another for the evening hours and the third as a relief, Rushin said. It would also put the officers who currently rotate these shifts back into their regularly assigned neighborhoods. "When they're off, there's no one to relieve them currently, so we really want to close that gap and return those NPOs back to their assigned duties," Rushin said. Rushin projected the added officers would increase traffic and pedestrian safety and parking enforcement while developing closer relationships with local merchants and increasing the overall sense of security. The presence will also reduce the number of intoxication crimes and assist DART officers in handling the transient population in and around the station, Rushin said. "We have a great many people downtown," Rushin said. "The current challenge is of course is alcohol sales. Any time you have alcohol sales, you know there's other things that go along with that as well. The biggest reason for arrests downtown is intoxication. We'd like to stay on top of those issues to make sure we have a [good] quality of life down there." Developmental affects on safety Like other areas throughout town, downtown Plano is also adjusting to and preparing for new development. The newly opened Junction 15 building will offer a police office facing the DART station for NPOs on duty. Future downtown projects expected to impact the department's duties there include Municipal Center South, which includes 130 apartment homes, 12,000 square feet of retail and restaurants and a five-story parking garage. Nearby McCall Plaza is also being renovated to include a new covered stage for live music and dance performances. "Fear of crime is [also] something that has been expressed by some of the local merchants and of course we want to stay in front of that issue as much as possible," Rushin said. Parking enforcement will continue to be one of the police department's priorities downtown, Rushin said, a responsibility public safety officers will start assisting with alongside police. When compared to DART police, Plano's force is typically the first to respond to parking and transient issues but the two departments have worked together very well, he added. "DART police have limited resources as well. They ride the trains and use a lot of cameras, but officer support is not as strong as you'd think it would be," Rushin said. "It's not that they don't want to but they're just understaffed like everyone else." Knowing that a stronger police presence is coming to downtown is comforting for local businesses owners like Julie Holmer of Angela's at the Crosswalk, who said increased parking enforcement would be helpful for ensuring adequate space nearby for her customers. "It's such an important issue to have someone out and enforcing our four-hour parking limits so people aren't parking and riding DART or parking in retail spaces and going to their apartment," Holmer said. "Having more people here is great, but one [officer] can't be available all the time. All the officers we've had in the past have [also] been so great about giving us their cell phone numbers. It's nice to be able to call an officer; it's a lot less intimidating than calling the police line."