Gilbert Police stepping up patrols in the town's Heritage District amid crime woes

Gilbert PD stepping up patrols at parking garages

Gilbert Police officials say they are stepping up patrols at parking garages in the East Valley town's Heritage District following a number of crime incidents in recent months. FOX 10's Ashlie Rodriguez reports.

GILBERT, Ariz. - After a number of late night, violent incidents that took place inside parking garages in the Gilbert area, the East Valley town's police department is keeping a close eye on underage teenagers gathering in parts of the community.

"I have heard of a lot of bad things happening to the younger people who try to come down to Gilbert and bad activity, and it's just not being monitored or controlled," said one person.

The parking garages in the town's Heritage District have become the site of underage drinking and illegal drug use. In December 2023, a group of teens attacked a man at a parking garage. In February, it was also in a parking garage where teens were seen on surveillance video throwing things from the roof, including a fire extinguisher, which hit and injured a man down below. In May, a 19-year-old fell 56 feet from the top of one, and subsequently died.

Residents say the big rowdy meetups are still happening this summer, and now, Gilbert Police officials say they are keeping a close eye on two parking garages in the Heritage District where teens have reportedly taken a liking to late-night partying.

"We've heard from our community, we do hear their concerns," said Gilbert Police Assistant Chief Jim Bisceglie. "Over the past few weeks, we have implemented other actions and other strategies to help control some of those issues."

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Police say they have a dedicated bike unit patrolling the area, with one to four patrol officers assigned to watch it. Within the last six weeks, they also assigned a directed patrol, made up of two officers who are dedicated solely to the parking garages, while working to upgrade the garage's camera system.

"There have been arrests made, there have been citations made, there're been times when we called the parents," said Bisceglie.

In addition to the enhanced initiatives that police officials are undertaking, Gilbert Mayor Bridgette Peterson is going before council on June 18 to ask that both garages start employing private security during peak hours.