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GREENSBORO — About 9:30 a.m. Thursday, a car pulled into the parking lot behind the Budget Inn at 512 Farragut Street.

A man came over to the car and briefly talked to the driver through the window. The two shook hands and left separately.

“You can see a drug deal right now,” Darryl McCarroll said, looking at the interaction from his parking lot. McCarroll owns the Sugar Bare Lost Dimensions strip club next door.

He and the motel owner, Harry Jariwala, want to put a fence between the parking lots to limit who enters and leaves the establishments.

It’s one idea that came out of a meeting of the Randleman Road Area Business Association, held Thursday morning at Stephanie’s Restaurant II, to discuss ways to reduce crime and improve the image of that part of town.

McCarroll said the fence would divide the lots for both businesses. It also would force drivers to travel through one entrance that would be attended by security during club business hours.

“We want to put down the people who are making rounds,” Jariwala said.

Lost Dimensions came under public scrutiny after the fatal shooting on April 12 of Carlton Smith, 30, in the club parking lot. It was the second homicide there in three years.

The slaying led police to look at shutting the club down through the state’s nuisance-abatement law and it brought area businesses negative attention.

Capt. Chris Walker, head of the police department’s southern division, which includes the Randleman Road area, said he is determined to change the perception that the area is unsafe.

“Randleman Road is not Dodge City,” Walker said. “So to start with, you don’t have a major problem here. Is there crime here? Yes, there is crime in every major retail establishment across the city.”

Walker said the better way to measure the prevalence of crime in an area is to examine the number of Part 1 offenses committed rather than the number of service calls made from the area.

A criminal analysis showed that 42 Part 1 offenses, which include larceny, burglary, assaults and other serious crimes, were committed on Randleman Road from Feb. 5 to May 5. That’s an average of 14 offenses a month.

The analysis only focused on Randleman Road, not Farragut Street.

By comparison, the more dense area on High Point Road, from Lee Street to Interstate 40, averages 20 to 25 such offenses per month, Walker said.

Earlier this month, Walker initiated an 11-point strategic plan to curtail crime along Randleman Road.

It was originally slated to last 60 days, but now the plan will run throughout the summer.

The plan includes increased weekend patrols, more after-hours trespassing charges and continued cooperation with business owners.

Walker said he supports building a fence if it reduces crime. McCarroll said the fence, along with the strategic plan, will make the area more business friendly.

“We’re pledging to continue to be good neighbors,” he said.

Contact Dioni L. Wise at 373-7090 or dioni.wise@news-record.com