Private security company to clear criminal camps along Tacoma corridor

TACOMA, Wash. – Business owners, fed up with crime and violence outside their stores, hired a private security team to clear their parking lots, where people were milling around and scaring away customers.

The raid took place along the South Hosmer Street corridor in Tacoma, an area with numerous homeless encampments and ongoing drug activity.

Tema Woods, the owner of Blue Falcon Tactical Solutions, led the team through all private properties from S 84th St to S 96th St along S Hosmer and Steele St S and cleared away any encampments or people who were outside businesses in the area .

“We are going to take that traffic and push it onto 96th Street, where all the resources await us, from treatment to housing,” Woods said. “We’re trying to get them off the streets and into a better life.”

Before the raid, Tacoma police said they only wanted to intervene if someone along the route called 911 for help. Although police officers have the authority to provide unauthorized access to private property, troublemakers cannot always be found when they respond, and business owners want a dedicated team to deal with the problems.

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The area around South 96th Street is a hotbed of crime and Woods said local business owners have had enough.

“A gentleman was killed down there. “We've had five shootings in the last two and a half weeks, in the exact same area right in front of the daycare,” Woods said. “From prostitution to violence, weapons, shootings to robberies and burglaries.” Ins. whatever, it's going on.

According to the Tacoma Police Crime Dashboard, 47 crimes were reported in the area immediately surrounding the intersection of Steele St and 96th St, including a fatal shooting, aggravated assault, armed robberies, weapons crimes, burglaries, drug crimes and auto theft and property damage.

“Normal people who would come here are afraid of it because they have this stereotype,” said Elgin McCoy, a handyman who owns Keyes Property Preservation.

McCoy often comes to the neighborhood to offer odd jobs to homeless people and others in the area.

“I’m trying to teach some of these people the ropes so they can make honest money,” McCoy said.

Blue Falcon has cleared the area before, but now they plan to do increased patrols for 30 days to try to hold on. McCoy doubts it will work.

“You’re going to push them out of here and they’ll be right back. It's been like this for a year and a half. “They push them away and then they're down the side street,” McCoy said.

Kevin Woods is an outreach worker at the Multicultural Child and Family Hope Center and the Tacoma Recovery Center. He had mixed feelings about the raid but acknowledged the neighborhood has more than its share of problems.

“I mean, like a lot of drug activity. It’s a dark place at night, even during the day,” Kevin Woods said. “You can see why they’re fed up. It's understandable, but I think there needs to be a better approach to help people.” “

In the weeks leading up to the raid, Blue Falcon's owner worked with housing providers, detox facilities and outreach workers to try to connect people who need help.

He said the neighborhood deserves better and he's trying to make a difference.

“We can secure this entire area for 30 days, stop police from coming here to fight lower-level crimes and then we can show how this model works.” “Hopefully it can lead to a long-term goal.” Woods said, “so that this place can thrive again, so kids can get up and actually walk to the bus stop without having to go through a cloud of fentanyl or are you worried about them getting shot?”