Program About Adding Eyes And Ears To The Streets
By Robert Thomas
“I think the Commissionaires are going to be our eyes and ears,” Mayor Clive Tolley said responding to questions from MJ Independent during the post Council media scrum about the four week Enhanced Patrol approved unanimously by Council on Tuesday afternoon.
At their September 26th Executive Committee meeting the issue was discussed and approved due to “a marked increase in unsettling incidents with people at City facilities, parks, green spaces, and areas that the Moose Jaw Police Service patrol.”
To reduce or eliminate such incidents Administration met with Police Chief Rick Bourassa and decided to try a four week pilot project whereby Commissionaires would patrol these areas from 8 pm to 4 am and not just contact the Moose Jaw Police Service (MJPS) but also keep statistics.
The pilot program would run for 30 days once the Commissionaires are trained and could be a permanent fixture once the data is presented at the upcoming 2023 Budget discussions.
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Mayor Tolley said the Commissionaires main role will be assisting the MJPS in identifying areas which require additional police scrutiny.
“I think the Commissionaires are going to be the eyes and ears for the Moose Jaw City Police in particular. So they can observe if there are problems and then talk to the police force about where we might need more enforcement. So I think it is just having more eyes and ears on the ground in the Downtown and parks areas to increase people’s confidence and safety in the community.”
The Mayor disagreed with concerns which had been submitted to MJ Independent that the enhanced patrol will simply chase the problem from the immediate Downtown to areas adjacent to it. He saw the pilot project as a potential means to help eliminate problems.
Mayor Clive Tolley - MJ Independent file photo
“It’s a worldwide problem. We want to simply move people around. We want to deal with them. So if we know who they are and where they are perhaps we with that additional information will help in dealing with the problem and getting them to the right services.”
The Mayor stressed Moose Jaw is not as bad off as other centres when it comes to addiction and homelessness.
“We’re fortunate in the City of Moose Jaw we do not have as much of a problem as the other cities. Regina, Saskatoon, Prince Albert, North Battleford have a much more significant than we do and of course the problems in cities in Saskatchewan pale in comparison to some of the major urban centres and this world. Drug addiction, crystal meth, people living on the streets its now throughout the world,” he said, adding “we have got all kinds of services provincially and federally trying to help these people. We now got Square One active and trying to provide a warming centre and more specifically services for women who are homeless and we have got the Riverside Mission and Soul’s Harbour trying to direct their energies to the men who are homeless and on the streets.”
In previous appearances before Council MJPS Chief Bourassa has stated much of the petty and other crimes is tied directly to addiction. Chief Bourassa stated at that time simply arresting people committing crimes related to addiction would not solve the social problems tied to addiction.
The Mayor said arresting people was not always the best solution.
“I know in most instances arresting someone is not going to help the scenario. So maybe we alert the provincial authorities and Social Services and some of these helping organizations and we try to deal with the problem,” the Mayor said.
Asked about the validity of claims - given their original source and properly documented statistics in other Saskatchewan communities - there are well over 100 homeless people and a large number of homeless people needing an emergency warmup shelter this winter Mayor Tolley said statistics should not factor into it.
“I’m less interested in the statistics and more interested in getting help for people and making sure that nobody is homeless is out in 40 below weather or overnight this winter. That is my main concern,” he said.
“Number of people homeless in Regina - 488 (2021)
Regina population - 263,269
Number of people homeless in Saskatoon - 550 (2022)
Saskatoon population - 337,000
Number of people homeless in Prince Albert - 97 (2022)
Prince Albert population metro - 43,000”
It should be noted research from York University about homelessness in Saskatchewan shows Saskatoon, Regina and Prince Albert with a lower per capita homeless population than what has been claimed for Moose Jaw.
A look at the source of much of the data on the need for a warming centre and homeless numbers in the city come from a now disgraced executive director whose former board has made allegations of financial falsehoods and turned the entire matter over to the MJPS for investigation.
Mayor Tolley said he hoped the program does not chase people who are homeless from one place to another.
“I hope not. I think if we find people in distress we are going to try and deal with them and get them the right services. It is a problem that can’t be solved. It is certainly not going to be solved here. It hasn’t been able to be solved anywhere,” he said.
It needs to be noted being homeless is not a crime. Also being homeless does not make a person a criminal.
City manager Jim Puffalt, who was city manager in North Battleford before coming to Moose Jaw, said the Community Safety Program in that city was designed to assist the RCMP as well as help where possible. North Battleford has been listed as the most violent and crime plagued city in all of Canada based on the Crime Severity Indexes.
“Lots of it has to do with gangs and drugs and all the rest that comes along with it. What we were trying to do with the community safety program was to get more eyes in the community. It is not that you are going to get everybody out of town but as his Worship said it was an opportunity to identify everybody who is there and then find ways to help those people,” Puffalt said.
He said the patrol in Moose Jaw would work very closely with the MJPS and “find ways here (to identify them) and get them into programs to get them a hand.”
“As we found in North Battleford you cannot arrest your way out of this. You have got to find ways to help people.”
Puffalt said the patrol would free up the MJPS to concentrate more on areas where crime is a major concern.
“We are talking about the parks and the Downtown but we are working closely with the Moose Jaw Police (Service) and they have found areas that they have identified where they have to patrol. And so again we want to work with them to find ways to allow the police to spend more time on crime areas and we will with the Commissionaires do a patrol,”
By being a marked vehicle and people in uniform Puffalt said what was found it worked as a deterrent and let people know there were eyes out looking for problems.
“It really is about crime prevention.”
Asked if the patrol would additionally collect more accurate statistics into homelessness and other problems Puffalt said he was hoping for that.
“That is my hope as well. That we will have people out. We will know who is in the park at three in the morning and you’ll find out like in North Battleford that is the lifestyle they have. Maybe it is not 180 maybe it is ten that are just moving around. So we won’t know until we get some data on it,” Puffalt said.
Regarding the potential of closing park spaces after hours - something Saskatoon has done - he said it was something which had been considered but the City was not prepared to do at the present time.
“Let’s see how this pilot program goes. If that is something we need to do then we will gladly do it. It is a minor bylaw amendment. If it will help give tools to our enforcement people and our staff we will make sure that happens.”