From Staff Reports 

ASHEVILLE, N.C. —Downtown Asheville business-owners are calling for collaborative safety solutions after the Asheville Police Department fired pepperballs to disperse a large crowd outside nightlife venues on Banks Avenue around 2 a.m. May 17. 

“The incident highlights the need for balanced crowd management and proactive, rather than reactive, policing strategies,” AI Overview opined.

In the aftermath, local business-owners and community stakeholders are proposing several specific safety strategies as follows:

• Proactive police presence: Business-owners, such as Federico Marquez, the co-owner of L.A. Pizza Party on Banks Avenue, advocate for having officers stationed in nightlife corridors earlier in the evening to naturally deter loitering and manage behavior before it escalates.

• City Council action: Stakeholders are planning to connect with local business leaders to bring formal proposals to Asheville City Council for increased, dedicated downtown patrols.

• De-escalation tools: “Law enforcement agencies increasingly view the use of pepperball launchers as an intermediate de-escalation tool,” AI Overview stated.

From Staff Reports

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — City Council voted 6-1 on May 12 to accept a $1.14 million federal grant to create a “Real-Time Intelligence Center” for the Asheville Police Department.

Casting the lone negative vote was far-left Councilwoman Kim Roney, who is seeking to unseat Esther Manheimer as mayor in the statewide general election on Nov. 3.

The controversial decision — approved in a heated, late-night meeting despite heavy citizen pushback and vocal opposition — will centralize camera feeds from across the city into a single hub at the APD’s downtown headquarters.