Shane Partridge of the Pleasant Hill Community Association says the province needs to provide more funding to make sure Saskatoon can have more officers on the ground along with adding more supports in the city’s core neighbourhoods.
This comes after he spoke to media following a community consultation hosted by the Saskatoon Board of Police Commissioners.
The PHCA made a slideshow presentation that contained images of recent homicides that have taken place in the community along with stats on crime in the neighbourhood. No one spoke or addressed the crowd during the presentation.
Partidge says after taking part in every survey and consultation over last year, while also being heavily involved in the media, “There’s nothing left to say, it’s all there.”
With a safe injection site set to open in Pleasant Hill next year, Police Chief Troy Cooper says additional resources are needed to help with ensuring safety once the facility opens.
He says St. Paul’s Hospital has security that the SPS will be partnering with along with community groups. Before the site opens, Cooper says they plan to have a public safety response in place that includes additional police resources.
The police chief says they’re having conversations with their board and provincial partners about getting additional resources in place prior to the opening of the safe injection site. Earlier this year, Pleasant Hill saw a string of homicides in the community, with that the SPS increased their presence in the community for a month.
Chief Cooper says adding more officers in the community is only a temporary fix. While crime does go down for short time after more officers where in the area, it climbs back up to numbers that were seen previous to the increased number of officers patrolling the area.
Jonathan Naylor of the Varsity View Community Association also presented at the meeting. Naylor touched on how crime has increased over the last year in his community, which includes mostly vehicle break-ins and moderate theft from yards such as bicycles.
In addition, Naylor spoke about and showed images of what residents believed to be a “drug house takedown” in Varsity View earlier this year.
Those in attendance also took time at the meeting to discuss what neighbourhoods can do to address crime and enhance community safety. They also proposed what neighbourhoods need from the City and police in order to see increased community safety in their area.
The report from the table discussions will be made available to the public on the Saskatoon Board of Police Commissioners website next week.
