Supt. Brown Says Extra Focus on Downtown on the Way
Graph gives visual impact of changes – graph courtesy PG RCMP
Prince George, B.C.- Prince George RCMP Superintendent Warren Brown says his team is committed to focusing on efforts to reduce the violent crime in Prince George.
In presenting his workplan for the RCMP’s new fiscal year to City Council, Supt. Brown noted he is very concerned about the increase in break and enters in the downtown and the increase in the number of sexual assaults.
He says it is clear that much of the crime happening in the City is the work of people from out of town “When we ask what brought them here and why they stay, they tell us they have made friends while in jail.” To that end, Supt. Brown says there is work being done with the Prince George Regional Corrections Centre to try and see that those who are released, move on to other locales.
In the first four months of this year, there have been 261 break and enters in the downtown, compared to 193 in the same period a year ago.
He says one of the efforts the detachment will undertake is beefing up the downtown enforcement unit.
That news was welcomed by Councillor Jillian Merrick “Certainly the word on the street is that things have gotten really weird in 2017, it’s strange” she added “I don’t think that beefed up safety unit could come soon enough for us, and even if the weather isn’t great, we’re hoping we’ll see cruisers, on foot, on bike, whatever it is. There is a shift happening I think in what’s happening downtown and certainly the stats are showing it, the conversation is showing it so hopefully we can get on that sooner rather than later.
Supt. Brown says the overall calls for service so far this year are well ahead of where they were in the first four months of 2016 and that period had the highest number of calls for service in a decade.
Mayor Hall thanked Supt. Brown for the report “It really tells it like it is, and that’s what we are used to hearing from you”. Hall added, “I appreciate you not sugar coating it, we need to know and we need to try to work together to try to resolve some of these issues.”
Comments
Downtown? Isn’t this where the 60 million dollar police station is located? This should be the safest part of the city.
City hall should use the same reasoning that they used with the Homestead and Connaught motels to stop the increasing crime….shut the whole works down and board up the windows:0
Since they did that I’m sure that all the drunks and druggies that frequented those establishments have cleaned up thier lives and are now productive members of society and did not just move into the downtown core.
Agree, should of dealt with the problem not just moved it to another location like they did with the ladies of the evening years back.
What is for sure is MacLeans is going to have a hey day with us next report
How many times has this happened in the last 20 or more years. Going to focus on downtown, increase foot patrols, basically clean it up, etc. Then the initiatives die out and everything continues. Grab the bull by the horns, to heck with the multitude of social workers and the other do gooders who say it is society’s fault, clean it up! I don’t go downtown, what for? I am always bumping into the ‘hard done by’ people. I don’t like my wife going down there. If something happens to my wife via mugging or something similar I will take matters in my own hands! We need to clean our image up! Sounds like I am going a tad overboard on this issue, but we do need a more positive image happening. But enough with all the new superintendents and the RCMP stating over and over again that this is their new focus. Get the bicycle patrols going, keep them going, put an extra officer on bicycle patrol, get the old beat cop out there and get a rapport going!
Lien, well said!
If they were to double the policing budget, we MIGHT get back to 70’s standards in patrolling neighborhoods and industrial areas. As it is now, they’ve been chasing complaints for years, no time to do patrols, gotta get the paperwork done for the crown in the morning. Do more with less!
Frustrated with naive politicians controlling the budgets.
@Grizzly2
“Frustrated with naive politicians controlling the budgets”
Just out of curiosity, could you list which politicians you feel should have been voted in over the past decade of so?
That is a very strange question.
I think the scenario goes that more police are requested to form a downtown task force. Say 6 or so. They work all summer and when winter hits they are disbanded and join some other special unit never to be seen again. Happens every spring as sure as the robins arrive !! Nice building, but the criminals are not going to come to the police. Policing in PG has become a big big city employer of people other than first responders, who could really care less about putting bad people in jail !
Cops on the beat or on bikes are angry cops. They prefer to sit in a warm comfortable car full of electronics. Walking a beat? What’s that going to solve?
THEN it is up to the white shirts to run the district properly. There is a chain of command in place, when you go through Depot there is a mission statemenet to follow. If you don’t want to ‘protect the public’ then go find a different career. Maybe this is where a city force would be more protective then a federal force, whose members get bounced around. Sergeants, Corporals, etc. are in their positions to command! Do the job as expected or leave the force, simple. Beat cops solve a lot by the way!
You’ve talked to them? I have, they enjoy it. They see a lot more happening and quite often can respond faster.
Good to see he is clued in to the out of town transient population. That’s been the problem in PG since as far back as I can remember. PG is the big city in the north with a huge draw area that includes many First Nation reserves that are worse than third world countries, and when they bring that mentality to town crime rate sky rocket.
To do better policing in PG it’s not just the city tax payer problem, it’s also a federal and provincial responsibility to start addressing the huge problems we have in the region bringing some of these places into the 21st century and making their own communities safe places to live… or defund and shut them down completely so the cycle of broken lives gets broken and the next generation can live in caring communities that they can learn good life skills and social norms that give them a chance in life. The failed reserves system needs to be addressed or crime rates in cities like PG will always be chasing the problem. My observation is that First Nations kids raised in PG don’t lack these social skills and are just as normal as any other kid, so we know that with a proper community environment they can thrive… but as a city we can’t fix those greater region problems without significantly more input from senior levels of government.
Also we should have a task force that is integrated with the security firms in the city. One with direct radio communication that is Johnny on the spot at the first sign of trouble. When security personnel is hesitant to call the police due to resource constraints or delay then the criminal element has room to operate.
Security personnel need to be the eyes and the ears on the ground and not the enforcement, but if they are not working in a timely manor with police then it all becomes useless.
There’s no money n picking up “crooks” money comes from the people heading to or from work trying to make an honest living. So be it. Let er rip.
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