By Angela Hall
Dubbed the “eyes and ears” of Centretown, a safety patrol hired last summer by Centretown business improvement groups will likely be back this spring to help keep panhandling, prostitution, vandalism and theft in check.
If the plan is approved in April by the Bank Street, Somerset Heights and Somerset Village business groups, the patrol of four Capital Security and Investigation employees could hit the streets by May and stay until Labour Day weekend, says Gerry LePage, executive director of Bank Street Promenade.
On bikes during the day and in cars at night, the patrol team will cover an area extending from Wellington Street to Gladstone Avenue, and Rochester to O’Connor streets.
Though the patrollers do not have any more authority than the average person, LePage says they were effective last summer just by their presence.
“Typically, they would just stand beside the panhandlers, which had a very bad effect on how much money they made,” says LePage. “And if they’re not making money they’ll go elsewhere.”
LePage adds that customers and merchants felt confidence seeing patrollers in the area.
Clad in running shoes, navy shorts, white golf shirts and blue ball caps, they kept daily logs of incidents and contacted police when situations were beyond their control, says Rob Lalande, manager of Capital Security and Investigations.
“Ninety-nine per cent of the time it worked fine,” says Lalande. “They asked people politely, whether (they were) panhandlers or prostitutes, to move along and they did. If someone got violent they called the police.”
Gwen Toop, executive director of Somerset Heights Business Improvement Area, says the patrol curbed some of the petty vandalism in her area last summer. She says it’s worth the hefty cost – her group put $15,000 towards hiring the patrol last July and August.
Because patrolling the streets is normally only a police function, Sgt. Dave Spicer from the Centretown community office, says hiring a private firm can be a “delicate issue.”
“But if everyone does what they’re supposed to do, there isn’t a problem,” says Spicer. “My feeling is that anyone who wants to be eyes and ears for the police is certainly going to be a help to us.”
But not everyone is a fan of the patrol.
Terry Scanlon, a hot dog vendor who has worked on the corner of Bank St. and Laurier Ave. for 15 years, says the patrol was often laughed at by panhandlers.
“The presence of a uniform was somewhat intimidating but overall ineffective,” says Scanlon.
“There was no respect because panhandlers heard the patrollers were ‘fake cops.’”
Scanlon calls the patrol a “quick fix” because the panhandlers pushed off the street went elsewhere or came back later.
But Edgar Mitchell, owner of Somerset House on the corner of Bank and Somerset streets, says he supports the patrol because it brings badly needed surveillance to Centretown.
“I don’t like to cry wolf,” says Mitchell.
“But there are lots of people on the street who aren’t orderly.”
Bank Street, Somerset Heights and Somerset Village business improvement groups will work out the details of this year’s patrol in the next few weeks.
So far, the only other Centretown area that will be seeing similar security measures is Sparks Street.
Bill Cornet, the vice-chairman of Sparks Street Improvement Area, says that by mid-April he hopes to hire a security patrol that would focus only on Sparks Street.
He says concern for customer safety and a need to protect merchants from break-ins prompted Sparks Street management to act.