Several employees and owners of down business attended the Lethbridge Police Commission meeting Wednesday night to voice their concerns about crime in the downtown core.
Eleven different people got up to speak to the commission, all with the same concerns regarding increased crime, drug use and what they described as a lack of police presence downtown.
Allison, a branch manager of one of the financial institutions downtown tells mylethbridgenow.com that she has worked in the area for over 25 years and in the past decade she has seen a drastic change.
“I think it all stems from what we are all talking about is the drug problem and the lack of policing, the lack of presence, the lack of any type of response that is happening. It is being allowed and these people know it is being allowed and there isn’t going to be any repercussions,” she says. “I have worked for 25 years downtown in two different major financial institutions and downtown used to be the branch people went to for clients, that was the main centre now clients are asking to go to branches at other branches, they want to go to the south-side, the west-side, they aren’t comfortable going downtown, they feel like it isn’t safe to go downtown.”
Robin James, CAO of Lethbridge Housing, also spoke at Wednesday night’s meeting as a downtown resident and business owner. She explains as a downtown business owner one of the biggest problems is there is rules in shelters and right now what is being seen in the downtown is there a lot of behaviour that is active in drug use and theft.
“We are not just talking about individuals who are homeless, we are talking about people who are active in use, active in doing something that is against the law. So if they are allowed to do that in the core there is no incentive to get them to the shelter,” James says. “So despite our best efforts to ensure we have the services in place we need, we need enforcement on our side to ensure people are getting to where the services are.”
She explains the shelter, which is being expanded to 200 beds, is not there to house people but rather be somewhere for them to safely stay through the night and have their needs met.
Downtown BRZ Executive Director Sarah Amies also was at the meeting and says she is really hoping the commission heard what the business owners and others had to say as these are conversations she fields regularly. She says that business owners do understand the difficulties that LPS is facing with resources and recruitment, but the business owners are the ones right now “in the trenches”.
“Business owners didn’t show up to be first responders, they showed up to be entrepreneurs, to make some money and to do what they love in their business,” Aimees says. “Right now our landscape is not a particularly positive one downtown, because we are dealing with social disorder every day.”
According to statistics shared by Aimies during the meeting, in the past five years, the Lethbridge Urban Revitalization helped fund 47 roll shutters and since January of this year they have helped fund 21, nearly half the five-year total.
Commission Chair Doug Thornton told the presenters “Your concerns have not fallen on deaf ears,” emphasizing those on the commission are also members of the community and care about its safety as well.
Lethbridge Police Service Chief Shahin Mehdizadeh followed this statement by addressing not only those who spoke but all in attendance from the downtown community saying there is a plan for the entire city and the police department continues to see the number of calls for service continue to go up significantly every year, which is a positive because it means more people are reporting issues in the community.
However, he addressed the fact that in the past, resources have been taken away from the downtown policing unit.
“But as the officers are coming on board and they go solo on their own, number one for our department is putting more resources downtown,” Mehdizadeh said.
He also added that he would like to schedule another town hall with the Downtown BRZ to continue to discuss with business owners and those from the downtown core who have concerns, so everyone can come to an understanding. This is something Amies says she is already thinking about dates and will be contacting the chief’s office to set up the town hall hopefully in the near future.
