With safety in the downtown becoming a growing concern, Belleville city council is providing money for a dedicated police officer to be on regular patrol in the area while acknowledging it is only a stop-gap measure.
Council unanimously voted in favour of the six-month trial program in a special meeting Tuesday morning with the $55,000 cost to be covered by a city reserve fund.
While extra security staff have been hired, problems of drug use, harassment, sanitation and general vagrancy persist.
Belleville Police Chief Mike Callaghan pointed out that there’s more at play, calling it not just a criminal issue but a societal one, as many homeless people struggle with mental health issues.
Mayor Mitch Panciuk says it is a fine line.
“We want to be a community that respects people with compassion and dignity but at the same time we want to be safe. We want to ensure that everybody can enjoy our city. And it’s a fine line to walk, particularly when, as a city, we have none of the tools to deal with any of the root causes of the issue.”
Chief Callaghan says a broader approach to treating mental health is needed.
“I’ve often used this and we use it a lot – that having the police involved in this societal situation is the proverbial first call and the last call. And that’s not what we want. We want to ensure we’re helping these people get the services that they need to be better and more productive. But they can’t get those services.”
Chief Callaghan and and several councillors expressed hope that the upcoming IMPACT program, a partnership involving local police services and mental health advocates responding to addiction- and mental health-related calls, and a strategy to combat homelessness currently being put together by Hastings County will help with a long term solution.
Downtown District BIA chair Kathryn Brown thanked the city and Chief Callaghan for listening to their concerns and coming up with a plan.
“We want the residents and the visitors coming into the downtown core to feel safe and we’ll do whatever we can to continue working with Belleville Police Services.”
While there have been more security guards assigned to the downtown, Chief Callaghan says they don’t have the training and resources that an officer does.
A cost estimate for the Downtown District BIA to add 24-hour security came in at $244,000 per year which Brown says is almost as much as their entire annual budget.
