It was a smaller turnout as citizens from the west end met to talk about safety in their neighbourhood.
But Spokesperson Kim Christie-Gallant says the residents were just as vocal, compared to hundreds of others who attended two previous meetings.
She says they are now in a crisis situation, “Peoples houses are being broken into while they’re home and people are scared. There was a young family, young daughter in her late teens early 20’s in tears because she said when she gets home she’s afraid to walk up the driveway because they’ve been approached several times. People are waking up to someone in the house, people are afraid to go out in their own backyards. We’re definitely in a crisis where law enforcement has to step up and by-law enforcement has to step up. Ultimately, our city officials are the people that need to call for action
This is the third meeting to address safety and crime concerns for West end residents, along with the City and RCMP representatives.
Around 75 people attended Monday night’s meeting at the Journey Church on Salisbury Road.
Concerns have been ongoing for years, but Christie-Gallant says anxiety has escalated and residents are frustrated, “Continuously over the last, I’d say three years, people have expressed that their houses have been broken into, and things have been stolen from their properties. There’s an increased presence of people scanning the neighborhood, both on foot on bicycles, even people that are visibly impaired on drugs, so it’s become a concern. There have been needles found on school grounds. At the local schools, the principals have arrived in the morning and teachers to find people sleeping in entryways. So there’s there are a lot of challenges these past few years with regards to public safety. ”
She adds, “Seniors have had their paths crossed on their morning walk by people visibly, shouting obscenities and so on. So as you can appreciate when people feel threatened like that, their anxiety levels escalate. I called after I saw kids walking home from school a few months back , and there was a person that had come up on our street visibly impaired and with a meth pipe in his hand. I called our RCMP and Community Policing, but nobody had anybody available. Dispatch just said, I’m sorry, we don’t have anybody available to come. And that’s pretty frustrating.”
The City has said there will be a follow up meeting, with an action plan on June 16th.
Some of the demands from residents state the City needs better policing and more mental health programs.
Residents have also stated, if the City can’t come up with a proper action plan, they will start calling for resignations, “Let’s face it, in the workforce, that’s what would happen. If you don’t do your job, then somebody steps in that can do it.”
