Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson says “everything” is under consideration for improving safety in downtown Mobile in the aftermath of a deadly shooting on New Year’s Eve that sparked chaos along the heavily populated stretch of Dauphin Street less than an hour before midnight.

But the potential of rolling back the downtown entertainment district’s hours appears to lack support.

One consideration, pitched by Greg Loughlin of Saddle Up Saloon, involves shutting off the district’s outdoor drinking hours at 9 p.m., or three hours earlier than its current midnight curfew.

It was among several ideas floated during Tuesday’s City Council meeting by Loughlin that sparked a post-meeting discussion by the mayor and others about downtown safety with the local media at Government Plaza. The talks come less than two weeks after the shooting in the 200 block of Dauphin Street that left one person dead, and seven others wounded.

The talks also come as Stimpson meets with downtown business owners to gather their concerns about public safety. The Downtown Mobile Alliance is also meeting with business owners on Wednesday to gather input on how to make the popular stretch of bars, clubs and restaurants safer during the coming Carnival season.

“The only thing we can do right now is get control of the streets,” said Loughlin, who is advocating to move more of the downtown foot traffic into the clubs and bars along and near Dauphin Street, and off of the streets where he says “intimidating” groups often gather late at night. “We need to end the drinking outside at 9 o’clock … come back with a strategy to make (downtown) safer before we open the (entertainment district) back up.”

Councilman William Carroll, who represents the downtown area, said he is not in favor of altering the hours that have been in place since 2016. That year, amid some unruly behavior downtown, the hours were rolled back from 2 a.m. to midnight.

“Not one building or business or anything caused an incident downtown,” said Carroll, referring to the New Year’s Eve shooting and a separate shooting that occurred at Paparazzi in November that left four people wounded. “We cannot allow our businesses to suffer because of the act of an individual.”

He added, “I am not in favor of rolling anything back in the entertainment district. (The district) is a benefit to our city. It drives entertainment, industry and so many other things that support our businesses downtown.”

Lawrence Battiste, the city’s executive director of public safety, said the city’s administration prefers “gaining compliance” from the regulations in place rather than taking “punitive action.”

He said that the city is going to “brush up on the ordinances that are in place” so that “if we need to be more aggressive in our enforcement approach, we are aggressive.”

Loughlin said he sympathizes with Mobile police when it comes to policing outdoor drinking. The city allows visitors to drink alcoholic beverages in 16-ounce plastic cups that are provided by the bars and restaurants in within the district’s boundaries that was first established through a city ordinance about a decade ago.

Regulating the cups and what kind of drinks are in them is left up to police officers assigned to patrol downtown.

Loughlin said it would be more beneficial for Mobile police to beef up its presence in downtown Mobile, which he claims is lacking. But in the aftermath of the New Year’s Eve shooting, Mobile authorities defended the number of officers who were in the downtown area and confirmed there were police officers within the vicinity of the shooting at the time it occurred.

City officials including Police Chief Paul Prine are encouraging downtown visitors during ArtWalk and Mardi Gras to reach out to a police officer and inform them about anything they see that is suspicious.

“We cannot police our way out of this,” Stimpson said. “We have to have help from the community.”

Hiring more police officers will help, Loughlin said, and he believes that is a responsibility for elected officials.

Stimpson said that Mobile police are about 70 officers short of their optimal staffing numbers. He said a recent cadet class produced 30 graduates who will help reduce the shortage.

Prine, in an interview with AL.com on Monday, vowed that Mardi Gras will be safe and that a large police presence will be in downtown Mobile that serves as the epicenter for the more than two-week pre-Lenten festivity that includes parades and formal balls. The most popular Mardi Gras parades can draw over 100,000 people to the downtown area.

Loughlin said he is concerned that the public is becoming more frightened about coming downtown for community events. He said he has also seen a dip in foot traffic at his bar.

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Stimpson, though, said overall crime trends are moving in a more positive direction for Mobile. He said that in the coming weeks, the city will release statistics that show a downswing in violent criminal activity since law enforcement rolled out Operation Echo Stop aimed at reducing gun violence.

Related: Mobile police arrest shooter a few hours after new ShotSpotter goes live

Stimpson said the goal for now is to ensure police are addressing concerns downtown as they arise. For instance, on Thursday, the mayor said that law enforcement stopped people from drinking alcoholic beverages from their parked cars.

“An event like (New Year’s Eve) breaks public confidence,” said Stimpson. “But you don’t regain public confidence by just the mayor saying, ‘we will do something.’ We need to have successive events to show we are on top of that and that’s what we will do.”

Battiste, the city’s executive director of public safety, said it’s important for Mobilians to not succumb to fear caused by what authorities say was an “isolated” incident on New Year’s Eve.

“We can try to do positive things for our city or crawl under a rock and show the world we are afraid of our own city,” he said. “There is no reason for us to be afraid in our own city. Everyone has an active role in trying to make sure we have a safe city.”

He added, “if (people) stay focused on this one negative incident we had … then people will crawl under the rock and stay inside.”