By Gemma Richardson
Ottawa’s community police centres are reaching out to make their neighbourhoods safer — but only during business hours. The 22 storefront centres are under review, and Centretown residents have some suggestions for improvement.
“I think in theory they were a great idea. But in reality they are doomed by the hours they keep,” says Sue Lott, president of the Centretown Community Citizens’ Association. “They are open mostly during business hours and that’s not really when a community needs access to a service like that.”
Most of the storefront centres close by 4 p.m.
Lott says in order to be effective, the police officers must be a familiar face in the community.
Angelo Filoso, chairman of Neighbourhood Alert, agrees with Lott.
He says he would like to see the officers stay longer in one neighbourhood before being transferred to another.
“We have a great concern that they aren’t sticking around for very long. Once we get to know them, they’re pulled out,” he says.
Filoso says the officers should be left for at least three to four years in one area.
He also says he would like to have more police visibility in the neighbourhood, either on foot or bike.
The storefront community police centres were originally created to increase police presence in neighbourhoods, but now mainly focus on crime prevention.
Most of the centres have one police officer overseeing a team of volunteers.
“I think they have a lot of potential,” says Elisabeth Arnold, city councillor for Somerset Ward. “But I do think we need a review on how we can better use these volunteers.”
Despite recent criticsm of the police centres it seems many agree that the centres are important to the community.
Lorraine Redford, co-ordinator for the Centretown Action Committee, is very happy with the presence of the centres.
“We need police in the community, not off in an ivory tower,” she says. “We’d do anything to keep them here.”
A Winnipeg consulting firm will be undertaking the evaluation of the community police centres and making recommendations to the Ottawa Police Services Board.