Old Town businesses, residents pitch in to hire private security

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Business owners in Old Town are pitching in to hire private security. But it’s a struggle to get all the neighbors on the same page.

“It’s a group effort so, you know, the whole area is kind of getting together to do something,” said Alan Vincioni, a property manager. 

Vincinoi is often kept busy cleaning up messes that plague Old Town.

“Today, we had one homeless encounter so far, and another broke-in over the night. So we had to go sweep the basement and make sure there’s nobody in there. You know, just same old stuff,” said Vincinoi. 

Starting now, they are hoping to deter some of these low level crimes.

“We believe we found the perfect solution to that gap between what APD considers an emergency and what we still think is important,” said JJ Mancini, president of the Historic Old Town Association. 

Private businesses and residents have pitched-in to hire private security to respond around the clock. But getting here hasn’t been easy.

“One of the biggest challenges is just the historical mistrust,” said Mancini. 

In a meeting last month, KOB 4 saw some of the growing pains of trying to get neighbors are on the same page.

“That’s probably one of the blesses and curses of Old Town, is we have a lot of history. But the downside is: we have a lot of history,” Mancini said. 

The work isn’t done. They have raised 85% percent of the reoccurring funds to keep private security here for the long-run. 

The security company gave the Old Town a discount on the first month as they hope to get more people on board.

“Mostly, I alone, I like to see is that the tenants and the business owners all getting together to do something in a cooperative way so that– because that’s much more effective,” said Vincioni.