Removal of an encampment at Lethbridge’s Civic Centre Park has been delayed as police investigate a shooting, which is believed to be an isolated incident.
The city had planned to tear down the encampment on Wednesday and outreach for people living there was underway, according to Mike Fox, director of community services.
“LPS (Lethbridge Police Service) deals with any criminal activity or any health and safety issue of a nature that could be violence or anything like that,” Fox said. “We continue with outreach daily and even with the incident that occurred last evening.”
LPS Deputy Chief Gerald Grobmeier said the shooter and the victim knew each other and had history. “Where it happened is irrelevant, although it happened at an encampment.”
Fox said the longer an encampment is entrenched the harder it is to maintain a safe environment. When asked again about long term solutions for homelessness, Fox said the city continues to advocate to the province for transitional and supportive housing.
Grobmeier said police step in when there is a safety risk to people living in encampments, social service workers, or the general public. He added much of the work done by LPS at encampments is outreach.
“Obviously that’s our realm of responsibility is the criminality when it comes to these camps, but at the same token we are very cognizant about criminalizing the vulnerable population,” he said. “We don’t want to be criminalizing them all the time because the reality is more times than not, these individuals, they need help and the criminal justice system doesn’t provide that assistance.”
Grobmeier said police work closely with social agencies to help people experiencing homelessness connect to resources.
“The only way we are, as a society, getting out of this situation is not by making arrests. It’s about helping these individuals as much as possible,” he said. “To go into these camps and start charging people for very very small crimes, our court systems just can’t manage that.”
Grobmeier said on top of outreach, police watch out for people dealing drugs in encampments and dangerous behaviour.
“Our focus is to work with the city of Lethbridge and to work with the social agencies to provide that assistance to these individuals because living in an encampment is not helping them,” Grobmeier said.
Lethbridge city council will get a staff report in October on the process of dealing with encampments. It will include potential bylaw amendment recommendations.