COCOA, Fla. – Is it time for a historic destination for shopping, dining, and night life to hire private security?
Some businesses in Cocoa Village are calling on the city to address concerns they have for public safety.
“These people have threatened my business and my family, my livelihood, basically, everything I’ve put into Cocoa Village,” Josh Dudley of the Forgotten Block butcher shop told the Cocoa Community Redevelopment Agency.
The CRA Tuesday was discussing its options on hiring security guards, but the group tabled the debate.
Some store owners said the homeless are becoming a bigger problem.
Dudley told Brevard County Community Correspondent James Sparvero about his experience opening his butcher shop within the last year.
“Since we’ve been here, there’s been countless people who have been chased off from our business from people aggressively panhandling,” he said. “I’ve even had them approach me outside of my business, and it’s getting extreme. We want better security, a little more enforcement in the area.”
Dudley said he’d like to see more police in the Village.
Last year, Cocoa police responded to the Village for an attempted murder.
Police said Jeremy Moore, who was homeless, stabbed a man waiting for an Uber.
At city hall Tuesday, Councilman Alex Goins suggested giving the six-figure salary it would cost to hire private security to officers already employed.
Right now, police say officers are exclusively assigned to the Village just three nights a week.
“I trust our officers better than I trust any security guard,” Goins said. “I wanna pay our guys.”
The city said its next debate on whether or not to hire private security could happen at a meeting in November.