By Spencer Sterritt

City looking at revamping downtown community policing office

Feb 20, 2018 | 4:29 PM

NANAIMO — Since no police officers are stationed at the downtown community policing and services office, the City of Nanaimo is now looking at how else the space can be used.

Nanaimo City Council voted 6-2 to work with the community and service providers like Island Health and the province to find new groups to fill the space, as well as create strategies to rebrand the office and remove the reference to police.

“I think there’s a perception that the office has been manned and it hasn’t,” coun. Sheryl Armstrong, a former RCMP officer, said when informing a delegation an officer hadn’t been staffed there since 2009. “[Officers] will drop in there and say hi or whatever, but it’s not manned.”

A staff report on the issue said the office was designed to station bike patrol officers, but currently has four bylaw and parking officers who are often out of office and one clerk working the desk. The office door is locked when only the clerk is inside.

Randy Humchitt, a delegate who works at the Nanaimo Association of Community Living and also spoke on behalf of the Victoria Crescent Association, told Council while he and others understand while the building isn’t being used as a police office, it doesn’t mean the space can’t be utilized by other outreach groups.

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“It seems there’s an increase in aggressive behaviour, of homeless people congregating that don’t seem to be getting the support they so desperately need,” he said of the downtown situation. “It doesn’t seem to us like the right time to pull that kind of service and sending a message that safety isn’t a priority for people in the downtown core.”

Coun. Ian Thorpe said creating a strategy to revamp the space and make sure it’s being used properly is a chance to revitalize Victoria Cres.

“How many times have we sat at this table and heard about the problems of civil disorder and increased unrest in our downtown core? This is an opportunity to take a step, or at least look at strategies to use this office to help combat that problem.”

Coun. Diane Brennan agreed, saying “people feel abandoned by the City in the downtown area and this is an opportunity for us to show the merchants downtown and people who live downtown that we’re serious about changing the shape and face of downtown.”

Coun. Bill Bestwick and Jim Kipp opposed the motion.

The motion came to council after store owners presented to the City’s public safety committee about the potential closure of the office.

spencer@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @spencer_sterrit