Community Safety Officer supervisor Ross MacAngus discusses downtown patrols during Monday's City of North Battleford Planning Committee meeting. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Angela Brown

Downtown safety

CSOs beefing up foot patrols but residents still concerned about safety

Apr 16, 2019 | 12:04 PM

The City of North Battleford’s Community Safety Officers (CSOs) have been beefing up foot patrols downtown to improve safety, but are still reporting a significantly high number of calls for service, based on March stats released at Monday’s Planning Committee meeting.

Supervisor Ross MacAngus said in March two officers conducted foot patrols downtown every day or every second day. They have also been stopping into businesses to talk to owners about their concerns.

MacAngus said while the officers have been increasing foot patrols there is an ongoing issue with certain intoxicated and difficult individuals creating trouble in the downtown core.

“Quite often it’s the same individuals,” he said. “As the day wears on things get worse, in most cases.”

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From the total calls for service, MacAngus said about 15 per cent cover the downtown core area alone, and take up a great deal of officers’ time.

Residents harassed

Council mentioned a number of residents have been contacting the city each month complaining about being harassed by problem individuals while walking downtown, which is a concern.

Coun. Kevin Steinborn said he finds it frustrating citizens are being harassed downtown, despite the city’s efforts to beautify and improve safety downtown.

“We spend a lot of money and time making the downtown more beautiful, and trying to be friendly both to consumers and business people,” he said. “When I hear (of problems) like this that are happening from individuals downtown bullying and threatening citizens, it’s disheartening.”

Steinborn said he appreciates the number of foot patrols downtown, but is still concerned the problem doesn’t appear to be going away.

“I don’t know what the answer is,” Steinborn said.

Council members hope the new movie theatre and new businesses downtown would help improve safety since the amenities would draw more residents to the downtown area to access the services.

Coun. Kent Lindgren asked MacAngus to provide a more detailed report indicating what the calls for service were about, which might help council in its work to try to improve the situation and look for solutions.

The CSO report for March shows 1,055 total calls for service; with 2,392 for the year-to-date total. That’s an increase from February when officers saw 800 total calls for service, with 1,337 for the year-to-date total.

In March, community safety officers completed 65 foot and 160 vehicle patrols. That is an increase from February when they undertook 30 foot and 147 vehicle patrols.

For March officers reported fewer parking violations than February. They issued 266 parking tickets, 63 of which were downtown, 180 residential, three for fire lanes, six for handicap parking violations, and 14 for other offences. In comparison, for February, they issued 467 parking violation tickets. From that amount, 26 were downtown, 356 residential, seven for fire lanes, 29 for handicap parking violations, and 49 for other offences.

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angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW