(EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is part of a series celebrating the people, places and history of Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall as it turns 50 this year.)
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Charlottesville Police Department officer Matt Ryan once approached his walks on the Downtown Mall as a way to burn through training hours. But after a year as the mall’s designated daytime officer, he realized the position involved some of his most valued aspects of police work – getting to know community members and addressing issues head-on.
“A lot of things that I like to do as a police officer, I get to do down here.” Ryan said. “I’ve had the freedom to be able to make this position my own.”
Ryan is the officer on duty at the Downtown Mall from the early morning to late afternoon on weekdays, taking walks that span Market Street to Water Street and putting a personal touch on community policing.
Along the way, he often encounters business owners, visitors, unhoused individuals and Charlottesville locals, who he has spent the last year building relationships with, and attributes these to success for CPD’s investigations as well as the city at large.
“It’s an underappreciated art in policing,” Ryan said. “I don’t think that’s something people realize.”
Walking the mall has been a part of field training for CPD officers for years according to Ryan, but as the designated daytime officer he has a much deeper interaction with the area, essentially one of its “faces” during the day.
His work is complex, dealing with crime that occurs on the mall as well as assisting business owners with complaints and helping the unhoused find resources. Some of the brunt of that work lies in attention to detail, which he has built up through closely observing the mall each shift.
Broken windows, new graffiti tags or other signs of greater issues can go unnoticed, but Ryan’s role is to work with the community to investigate these instances, aiming to keep the mall feeling like a safe part of the community.
Challenges during his shift typically involve negotiating between business members and unhoused individuals or helping stakeholders on the mall realize when police action is warranted, which they can often approach reluctantly.
“There’s a lot of eyes downtown, people don’t want to make a scene,” Ryan said. “The community policing aspect is maintaining that relationship with the business owners, as well as the people that come down here.”
Although many assume places like The Salvation Army and The Haven are primary resources for the unhoused community, Ryan noted that that is a common misconception, as many of their patrons are not unhoused and use those sites for their amenities like showers or laundry.
Instead, places like the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library or storefronts see more traffic, which requires a balanced approach in meeting the needs of unhoused individuals and business owners. Ryan bridges that gap through occasionally getting individuals food or drinks from businesses they are no longer allowed to enter or mitigating instances of theft.
“People always think, “Oh, they’re stealing booze, and this and that,”” Ryan said. “They do steal alcohol, but a lot of it is ‘I stole some tuna because I’m hungry’, or ‘I don’t have anything to wash my clothes.'”
His closeness to the community has made dealing with crime easier rather than more difficult, yielding greater cooperation and more synergy within criminal investigations. Working through apprehension towards law enforcement with unhoused individuals is difficult, but when successful can get more incidents reported and lessen tension between both groups.
Ryan noted that while not every attempt of his to assist the community is effective, there have been some moments where he felt he was able to build trust.
“It was neat to see that mold broken, probably not permanently, but just a little bit.” Ryan said.
But regardless of permanence, the process of breaking that mold requires a unique kind of person.
“He cares. It’s that simple,” Chief of Police Michael Kochis said. “The guy sincerely cares about the folks down there on the mall. He cares about our unhoused population. He cares about the business owners. He cares about people visiting on the mall. He’s the kind of cop that every chief wants.”
As he approaches the year mark on walking the mall, Ryan will be transitioning into a new role in the criminal investigations division by the end of the summer, taking on a detective position. But as new officers take on the stretch of the mall, he hopes to impart the importance of observation and community engagement to maintain the broad impact of a short-term role.
“You need to be present and you need to be aware,” Ryan said. “Being able to show people this is how it’s done properly, I think that’s how you motivate people.”
Read the rest of Cville Right Now’s series on the Downtown Mall with these links:
Fridays After Five: 38 Years of the Downtown Mall Soundtrack
