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Mem­bers of the pub­lic, road­side ven­dors, and busi­ness own­ers wel­comed a po­lice walk­a­bout in San Juan on Fri­day, but many ex­pressed scep­ti­cism that in­creased vis­i­bil­i­ty alone would curb the cur­rent crime surge.

As se­nior of­fi­cers—led by Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Op­er­a­tions Suzette Mar­tin—vis­it­ed busi­ness­es in­clud­ing KFC and Crown Phar­ma­cy in the San Juan Croisee, some cus­tomers ad­mit­ted they re­mained anx­ious with the Christ­mas sea­son ap­proach­ing.

De­spite re­peat­ed as­sur­ances from both the po­lice and the San Juan Busi­ness As­so­ci­a­tion (SJ­BA) that en­hanced mea­sures were in place to boost com­fort and se­cu­ri­ty in the dis­trict ahead of Christ­mas and Car­ni­val, at least one busi­ness own­er was un­con­vinced.