Residents in Nanaimo's Diver Lake neighbourhood tour the surrounding area, including nearby Kinsmen Participark during a neighbourhood audit on Wednesday, May 4. (Alex Rawnsley/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH

‘They were telling us things we weren’t aware of:’ new round of Nanaimo neighbourhood safety audits underway

May 6, 2022 | 5:31 AM

NANAIMO — People living in two neighbourhoods hoping to improve public safety are helping to open up the lines of communication.

The Diver Lake and University Heights areas, selected for this year’s neighboudhood safety audits, were the sources of in-person engagement sessions this week as part of the unique program’s second year.

Nanaimo RCMP Res. Cst. Gary O’Brien said the whole idea is engaging with people on their level.

“It’s an excellent dialogue with people who are concerned about their neighbourhood. We walked through the streets and looked at it from their perspective. They live in those areas, we’re not there 24/7 and they were telling us things we weren’t aware of.”

O’Brien and volunteers from the Nanaimo RCMP’s community policing program met with residents of both areas for the past two nights to hear concerns first-hand during walking tours.

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The passion people have for where they live and improving safety is something which has struck out to him during this process.

“If neighbours and people in the area don’t feel safe, regardless of what we’re doing nothing’s going to change,” O’Brien told NanaimoNewsNOW. “The key is to get out on their terms and meet with them, discuss in a very informal setting and find out why they’re concerned about a certain thing.”

Key issues raised during a Wednesday, May 4 walk through the Diver Lake neighbourhood included social disorder challenges at the Kinsmen Participark next to Beban Park.

“There’s been a lot of pressure in there from the supportive housing so it was a really engaging discussion to see what the residents felt about that.”

Residents from the neighbourhood spoke on an increase in foot traffic in recent years, with redesigns of streets in the area also leading to installation of walkways between properties.

Issues ranging from people wandering through to porch pirates stealing delivered mail were flagged as a result of the changes.

Concerns on specific areas of neighbourhoods, some which were not noted through regular RCMP patrols or reports, were identified by residents during neighbourhood audits. (Alex Rawnsley/NanaimoNewsNOW)

A stroll through areas of University Heights on Thursday, May 5 highlighted Bowen Park.

One resident who lives on the edge of the park and did not want to be identified, said he had someone banging on his door late at night who he believed was experiencing a psychotic episode, potentially fuelled by drugs.

The man told the resident there had been a murder and to call 911.

Police came to take the man away, but the resident never received a follow up call from Mounties and didn’t see anything about a murder in local media. He felt he was left without a resolution after an intense incident.

O’Brien expected the Nanaimo Community Policing program to produce reports on the two neighbourhoods sometime over the summer.

Criminology practicum students from Vancouver Island University are helping to put the data together.

Last year’s audit involving nearly 750 people in six areas of Nanaimo found most people were not satisfied with safety in their neighbourhoods.

The data is paired with crime statistics to help address challenges in various neighbourhoods.

More information on Neighbourhood Safety Audits can be found on the Nanaimo RCMP community policing volunteers website.

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