CRIME & POLICING

      These two issues are commonly thought to be closely linked together and to a degree they are however that is a superficial take on these matters.

      Firstly,  interjecting the police to deal with some of the negative behaviors’ of the homeless has not been good policy or a good use of costly police resources. I support the use of trained teams to attend to persons in crisis along with the police when needed to respond to these kinds of calls. Petty crime that is seen as rising is a frequent complaint and should be reacted too with more police patrols and shared strategies for making oneself less of a target.

      One very large and looming issue is that the police force has essentially been working to rule for over 5 years now, and with fewer patrol officers today than pre-pandemic times, many areas are now receiving less attention as higher order crimes are being prioritized in response.

      The source of this work to rule has to be a fully addressed so that both the City and police force can move on and deal with disturbing trends of greater violent crimes such as shootings, assaults and murders. Crime in and on TTC property is up and barely being acknowledged or dealt with. Special attention is required there to help bring back riders who now feel unsafe and threatened using the TTC service.

      The long overdue consolidated police station at the TTC Barns location at Coxwell and Danforth needs to be separated from the development of the rest of that site if it is the reason for the already five year delay and proceeded with independently regardless. The promise of the city-wide station consolidation is being wasted and the area is expected to see even more residents in the future so that project should be green lit immediately and without further delay. The public deserve the best use of police budget dollars and if this station can produce savings as expected along with a chance of improved delivery of service to the community then it must be a first priority of Council and I fully support that.

      We also must acknowledge that homeless encampments in public parks have returned if in fact they ever left and the unsafe conditions they generate to both the homeless themselves and the general public has to be faced and resolved. An armed response however is not needed and should be avoided entirely if possible.

      I would also have the police tasked with producing public education videos to assist road users in the correct and proper use of bike lanes hosted on the City’s YouTube channel. Vehicle drivers too need this to advise and educate them as to the very many different and new bike lane arrangements that have sprung up and their correct interpretation and use, as the often confusing signage in use is not being well understood or abided. Greater general enforcement along with education should help smooth the often difficult relations among road users that exist today.

      Everyone has a part to play but not everyone either understands or agrees that road rules apply to them as we’ve seen over the summer with the uproar with cyclists in High Park and other park users. The city must stand up for respect for the rules of the roads as they become more and more the intensive focus of the VisionZero program. That program has been undertaken primarily without a complete appreciation of the interplay between all road users and prior input from a policing perspective is necessary beforehand, else police resources are being wasted to attend to the deficiencies and conflicts many of these program objectives have created.

     Going forward, a more integrated approach connected to policing is needed. Else the use of speed cameras, for example, will be largely wasted as the problem areas they uncover are not being highlighted for added police monitoring and enforcement which is the only reliable manner in which to alter bad behaviours on the road. Fines without driving license consequences have proved to be pointless and ineffective.