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A woman leaving Old Navy on Thursday afternoon walked near Sgt. C.T. Blaylock in a parking lot at Friendly Center. Blaylock stood with one foot on the ground and one foot on a bicycle pedal, in a bright yellow windbreaker reading “Police.”

“Thanks for being here,” the woman said. “It feels good to see you here.”

Old Navy opened a day earlier than planned, and a stream of shoppers going in and out slowed as they passed a row of flowers, poinsettias, candles, cards and stuffed animals — a tribute to Juan Estevan Salado, the armored car guard who was killed there Monday in an ambush robbery.

Blaylock spent the afternoon riding through Friendly Center, State Street’s retail district and the Lawndale Crossing shopping center.
Police are working to be more visible and they are asking residents and shoppers to be more vigilant in the remaining days of the holiday season.

Police working on patrol squads and community resource teams are stepping up the hours they spend at shopping centers across the city, increasing foot patrols and in marked police cars to prevent crime and help people feel safe.

“We had already planned to be out here,” Blaylock said. But Blaylock felt that Monday’s homicide made police presence there more important. “That put some shop owners and shoppers in a state of uneasiness,” Blaylock said.

Shoppers at the Friendly Center on Thursday said Monday’s crime hadn’t made them change their behavior.

Robyn Wofford said shopping at Old Navy on Thursday was sad, but not fearful. “It was somber to look at what was there,” Wofford said of the flowers. But after years of shopping at Friendly Center, Wofford said she felt no reservation about shopping there for T-shirts and a book.

Extra security was a marked presence at the store. Armed guards stood just inside the door — one opened the door for Wofford.

“The whole situation wouldn’t have deterred me from coming here. I think it was a random act of violence. I don’t think it reflects the security or safety of being over here,” Wofford said.

“I’ve never felt not safe here,” Wofford said.

Police regularly increase their efforts around Christmas because the abundance of people out shopping is an attractive target for robbers.

“We know based on history that we’re going to see an increase in some crimes during the holiday season,” said Capt. Brian Cheek, commander of the department’s western patrol division.

Cheek has assigned community resource officers to focus their efforts primarily on shopping centers, and patrol officers to work there as time allows. His district includes retail areas on West Wendover Avenue and the Jefferson Village shopping center.

The most common crime during the holidays is theft, something police say people can help prevent by being cautious.

“The chance of being involved in a violent crime is very low, but that’s what catches people’s attention,” said Capt. Christopher Walker, commander of the department’s southern patrol division, which includes the Four Seasons Town Centre and part of the High Point Road business corridor. “The number one crime that occurs is someone’s car gets broken into while they are shopping,”

In response, Walker has assigned squads to work specifically at shopping centers. The officers spend their whole shift in marked police cars or on foot, providing a visible police presence to discourage criminals and encourage the feeling of safety.

“There’s no special unit or squad that works shopping centers,” Walker said. But he has assigned his patrol squads to work a special assignment doing high visibility patrol at shopping centers when the officers aren’t responding to calls.

Because of the schedule that patrol officers work, four out of every nine days there is an extra squad on duty. That squad has been devoted to patrolling shopping centers since Nov. 1.

The increased patrols seem to be having a positive effect. During months when crime often increases, the segment of High Point Road that lies in the southern police patrol district had 17 percent less crime in November than October, Walker said.

Contact Sonja Elmquist at 373-7090 or sonja.elmquist@news-record.com