JAMESTOWN, N.Y. — The Chautauqua County Executive P.J. Wendel calls out the city of Jamestown for failing to address crime in the city. Wendel claims a lot of it is happening at a parking garage off of Spring and 3rd streets.
Wendel released a statement overnight calling out the city saying, “It’s disappointing that additional measures are being considered only after acts of violence.”
However, he started his statement by applauding the news that the city is considering additional security measures.
Wendel says it’s teenagers and the growing homeless population that are committing the crimes. They vandalize the parking garages, break car windows, and commit theft of vehicles.
“Where does it stop? This hasn’t always been a problem. There may have been problems in those parking garages but not in the magnitude we’re seeing now,” Wendel said.
Wendel isn’t letting up and says he’s getting the city to address the problem.
Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sandquist responded.
“We’re a little in shock to see it since we have been working for months with his county department heads to solve some issues that have come out from the county employees,” Sandquist said.
“The crazy part is that statistics are showing that crime is actually Dow compared to today.”
Similar to data shown by The Jamestown Police Department. The crime was up only slightly in 2022 compared to the year before. Violent crimes peaked in 2020, dropped in 2021, and were nearly identical in 2022. Property crime, while slightly higher in 2022 compared to last year, is still significantly lower than the average of the previous decade.
Wendel suggests the city installed better signage, add more lighting, and more security cameras to its parking garage. He tells Channel 2 he will be meeting with the mayor next week to discuss more that can be done.
Despite that, other occurrences have scared long-time resident Brenda Whitford.
“I grew up around here. Twenty years ago, 30 years ago, you could hang around downtown at night and not worry about anything,” Whitford said.
She says what used to be a safe place is no longer the same.
“You are physically sometimes assaulted and verbally. You can’t walk around morning, noon, or night. Sometimes you think it’ll be better to go in the morning but it’s not,” Whitford says.
It’s now scary in Downtown Jamestown for Whitford. To make matters worse Whitford is legally blind and has been assaulted twice.
“It was an older gentleman; you can smell the alcohol on him and he walked by me and he just struck me in the head. In the second incident, I was walking through the parking lot in our downtown area. Another man walked by me and jumped in my face while I was on the phone with my husband,” Whitford said.