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Last month we celebrated two years of a successful partnership between the police, community service partners, and our downtown residents at the 2012 Police Week: Police in the Park event. It was a beautiful Saturday in Dundonald Park attended by approximately 600 people. Organized by the incredible volunteers of our Somerset Community Police Centre, the day was an astounding success!
Chief Bordeleau welcomed the crowd and the drumming of Ota-Wa Taiko promptly began at noon, bringing more and more neighbours out of their homes and into the park with every beat. “I heard the drumming and came out to see what was going on,” said local resident Katie Layng.
Katie, like most Ottawa residents, had little interactions with the police until that day. But she called her mother who lived up the street, who called her neighbour, who emailed the downtown parents group. Within an hour of the event starting, our team of organizers initiated an emergency backup plan called “Operation-More-Hotdogs”. Doubling our original estimation of 200 guests and immediately purchasing enough food for 500 people, even that wasn’t enough!
But no one cared that the food ran out or that there were no more balloons. They were simply impressed that the Ottawa Police Service took time out of their busy schedules to build a meaningful relationship with the community they serve.
“It’s no longer good enough to just meet a police officer”, I said at a recent event, “Meaningful, trusting relationships require effort. So that you know your officers will be there when you need us, and we know you’ll be there when we need you.”
The community policing model is one that focuses on long-term sustainable solutions. Responding to stop a crime in progress is one thing, but reducing overall crimes in high-demand areas is preferred. If there were ever any doubts that it works, just pay a visit to Dundonald Park where there are less service calls today than there were two years ago. There are fewer drunks, less fights, and more community members taking ownership of what’s rightfully theirs.
After overwhelming calls for service to Dundonald Park peaked in 2010, the Ottawa Police Service initiated a strategy of suppression and enforcement along with community initiative and social service intervention. We made all parks within our downtown neighbourhoods a priority in 2011, sending more police officers there than in the past.
But enforcement alone has never been enough, so I got to work building networks of community partners that would work together to develop initiatives that would sustain an acceptable level of safety for our neighbours. Today, Dundonald Park receives regular use from residents including yoga in the park, tai chi lessons, dance classes, weekend movies in the park, and a wide range of other initiatives to promote positive use and reduce the need for police intervention.
We live in an increasingly pessimistic society with cell phone cameras that show evidence of why we should never trust each other. But I’ve never been one for cynics. Trust is absolutely essential to our culture and can even define quality; quality of life, community, and policing.
New corporate supporters have emerged for next year’s event, community partners demand another invite, and our residents anxiously wait for more. Subscriptions to the Somerset CPC newsletter have increased by 10 per cent this month alone, making sure readers don’t miss out on other opportunities to build meaningful relationships with our members.
For more information, please visit: www.somersetcpc.com.