Document
1
Hello,
my name is Jasna Jennings, Executive Director of the ByWard Market BIA. Thank
you so much for the time today to speak on behalf of our over 600 ByWard Market
businesses.
As
the City’s number one tourist attraction, and historic heart of the City,
hosting an average of 10 thousand visitors per weekend from tulips to leaves,
the safety and security of our members and all visitors to the area is and has
always been a primary focus for the ByWard Market BIA.
The
true value of any organization is the manner in which it manages not only its
budget but its resources. As a business organization, our members are acutely
aware of the challenges involved in managing an organization and understand the
difficulties in making those tough decisions.
The
BIA has been very vocal over the last couple of years, outlining our concerns
with the shift away from the proactive district-neighbourhood officers’ model.
We are extremely pleased to see a renewed focus on community policing. But
that focus needs more than lip-service.
We
are here today to stress the importance of meaningful investment to address the
specific needs of our diverse and challenging community. Investments must
prioritize not only a team of dedicated officers, but also the background
supports for that system. A system that focusses on a problem-oriented,
proactive approach. A system that through dedicated officers, can work in
lock-step with the community to work together to achieve common goals.
A
dedicated team of pro-active officers provides the community with a consistent
point of contact. Dedicated officers know all the players and understand the
wide variety of stakeholders in the community. This intimate knowledge also
helps to navigate the sometimes conflicting priorities of all these different
players.
A
dedicated team also provides the community with a more senior officer as a
primary contact, someone in a position of authority who can make decisions, one
that can take immediate action and can truly affect positive change.
What
is currently proposed is a big step in the right direction, however it still
amounts to a small handful of officers covering a very large and diverse swath
of the downtown. We need to see more dedicated officers or better yet, more
teams of dedicated officers to better manage the urban core, along with a
robust system in place in the background to assist them.
Over
the years we have enjoyed a fruitful and steadfast relationship with the Ottawa
Police Service. We have witnessed first-hand the professionalism, hard work
and dedication of so many officers.
As
a valued partner, the ByWard Market BIA looks forward to our continued work and
efforts with the Ottawa Police Service and we are looking forward to working
towards these goals in partnership and collaboration with this newly appointed
Board. We invite all Police Services Board Members and all senior OPS staff to
connect with us at any time to better understand our challenges and successes
and to see how we can all better work together to achieve our common goals.
Thank
you.
Jasna
Jennings, Executive Director
ByWard
Market BIA
Document 2
COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION INC ASSOCIATION COMMUNAUTAIRE INC
1064 RUE WELLINGTON ST
OTTAWA, ONTARIO, K1Y 2Y3
www.hintonburg.com
Feb.
25, 2019
Ottawa
Police Services Board
Chair
Deans
Vice-Chair
Smallwood
PSB
Members
The
Hintonburg Community Association is pleased to see the Bikes & Beat Unit
that started
Jan.
1 this year. The complement of officers in the unit is small but it is a start
and movement in the right direction. The visible presence on the street is
important and very much appreciated.
We
support the funding and establishment of a Community Response Team – they will
make up a small amount of the loss we have felt when the Neighbourhood Officer
Unit was dismantled – again it is a start but not where we need to be.
The
numbers in the budget document are quite startling. The Population per Police
Member increased from 479 to 529 in the years from 2011 to 2017 – leaving us
with far fewer police officers per population than 6 years ago and less than 8
other smaller and larger cities in Canada.
The
re-organization of the OPS over the last several years has severely reduced
community policing, over-all police response, made reporting so very difficult
and been detrimental to safety in our City. The Service Initiative was a cost
cutting exercise dressed up as modernization program. Dismantling the district
model has reduced the accountability that used to exist. Who knows who to
contact and who does what these days? You figure one part out and then it
changes.
The
lack of adequate staffing has resulted in:
-citizens
calling about a crime in progress (cars being broken into) and being told to do
an on-line report – no officers would be sent.
-Residents
and businesses saying they are giving up calling for recurring disorder problems
either because they are told no officer will be dispatched or because they
never see an officer respond. They are saying they will deal with the issues
themselves – not the solution we want to see.
-
Community Police Officers territory has being doubled, their workload
quadrupled and all their critical, effective back-up been dismantled.
-theft
from vehicles being out of control in some areas and theft from businesses also
out of control.
On-line
reporting for some issues is frustrating and time consuming and there is never
any follow-up. Losing $4.00 in spare change from your car when it is gone
through takes about 20 minutes to file an on-line report. Entering reports on
drug houses is no different. How many people will work their way through an on-line
report and if they do will they ever report again?
We
were told DFS would adequately replace NHO’s – I have tracked several requests
and it has not resulted in anything.
Officers
no longer know the neighbourhoods they are working in.
We
understand that many of these changes were in response to budget constraints
over the last many years. The complement of officers has been too low for too
many years now.
Please
adequately resource the OPS to get us back to where we were a few short years
ago and press OPS to bring back the District Policing model.
We
need police to respond to crimes in progress, all other crimes and to be
accountable to their community.
Sincerely
Cheryl
Parrott
Co-Chair Security Committee, Hintonburg Community Association.
Document
3
Ottawa Sanctuary Network www.ottawasanctuarycity.ca ottawasanctuarycitynetwork@gmail.com
Date: February 25, 2019
Councillor
Diane Deans
Chair,
Ottawa Police Service Board
Councillor,
Gloucester-Southgate Ward
RE: Ottawa Police Service 2019 Budget
Dear
Madam Chair and Councillor Diane Deans,
The
Ottawa Sanctuary Network (OSN) is a diverse group of advocates, migrants,
academics and service providers working together to build a welcoming community
where everyone, regardless of immigration status, has access to public services
without the fear of detention or deportation. In that spirit, the OSN writes to
express our concern with respect to the proposed 2019 budget of the Ottawa
Police Service (OPS).
As
you are aware, the OPS collaborates with the Canada Border Services Agency
(CBSA) in order to remove individuals who may have precarious immigration
status. The OPS does so even when not expressly required by statute. We are
concerned that, by increasing the number of police officers through this
proposed injection of new funds, this collaboration will only be increased. The
OSN is concerned that OPS-CBSA collaboration contributes to creating a climate
of fear among members of our community who live with precarious immigration
status. As you know, our members, including frontline service provision
agencies, deputed to the Community and Protective Services committee in the
winter of 2017 with evidence of this concern.
The
OSN also notes that the OPS has been criticized for the impact of racist
policing on communities of colour in Ottawa. Despite this, the proposed $330
million-dollar budget only allocates $100,000 to the Multi-Year Action Plan on
bias-neutral policing. While the OSN does not believe that simply allocating
more funding to this plan is the solution, it is also not comforting to
overpoliced communities to see an increase in city spending on police services
that focuses on hiring more officers.
In
our view, the City of Ottawa should be directing these funds to community
development initiatives such as affordable housing: For example, the funds
recently approved by City Council to put towards affordable housing does not
include adequate monies for deferred maintenance. The OSN is concerned that the
City of Ottawa is neglecting investments in adequate affordable housing to
house those in need. Given that the City of Ottawa has recently sought to lay
blame at the feet of other levels of government for inadequate emergency
shelter space for refugee claimants it is particularly concerning to us that
the city would show a willingness to spend millions in new dollars on the
police service instead.
For
these reasons, we urge the Ottawa Police Service Board to reject any increases
to the OPS budget. We recommend to City Council that the proposed new monies
for the OPS be directed, instead, to initiatives such as adequate and
affordable housing, expanded mental health services and alternatives to
policing.
Sincerely,
Ottawa
Sanctuary Network
ottawasanctuarycitynetwork@gmail.com
Document 4
Police Services Board
(February 5, 2019)
My name is Lucie Marleau. I am the founder of Crime
Prevention Vanier and the NWProgram Volunteer Coordinator for Vanier.
Thank you for the opportunity to address you today
I have been active in community safety
and crime prevention in Vanier since 2007.
One would hope that my community work
would be easier after 12 years in the game but it isn't — far from it. Since
early 2015 it has been increasingly difficult Some of the setback wsre
encountered include:
Bili C-36, the Protection of
Communities and Exploited Persons Act — commonly known as the prostitution law
that came out in December 2014;
The revised carding or
street check provincial poticy that coincided with the OPS' service delivery
model in January 2017; 
The loss our Neighbourhood
Officers;
6 Community Police Officers in Vanier
since 2007 which averages to a new CPO every 2 years or less (not including the
months-long gaps between CPOs at times and no transfer to knowledge between the
former CPO and the new);
The
addition of 3 new neighbourhoods to our CPO's catchment area which, of course,
is detrimental in and of itself — limiting our CPO's involvement in, and
attention to, safety issues in Vanier, not to mention attendance at community
meetings and events; 
We spent years promoting
the OPS reporting number to very reticent residents only to have that phone
number discontinued! And don't get me started on the insistence by OPS that
residents should report on-line — by its own frontline officers and
Communication Centre
I could go on but you get the point
so I'll move on...
Out of the mess of the new service delivery model,
neighbourhoods only achieved 2 gains in my view:
The extension of CPOS mandate to 5
years — unless he or she chooses to leave early as what happened in Vanier; and
The operationalizing of the transfer of
knowledge between CPOs — though not enough time has gone by for me to know if
this will occur consistently in Vanier.
v' Oh there was also the
OPS Formalized Community Network that was tested in 2 priority neighbourhoods
but don't know what came out of that.
I attended the last public PSB meeting and it was so very
refreshing to hear that all of you support additional funding for neighbourhood
policing — note that t use the term
'neighbourhood' as oppose to OPS' term of 'community'
policing given how broadly that term js applied by OPS — service providers
community, LGBTQ2 community, Muslim community, etc.). 1m here with you today to
speak to 'neighbouthood t policing specifically
So l'" spare you the repetition of what you know or
what you've heard of the pleas for a return to neighbourhood-specific policing
and the resources to match!
At the OPS human rights forum last December, some of you
heard from the former Boston Police Commissioner about how instrumental
neighbourhood and community policing is for effective, sustainable policing,
That potice have to think beyond the strictly law enforcement approach. It must
be about community engagement and crime prevention. That it's about reaching
the youth, attending events, collaborating with grass»roots community groups,
and implementing proven crime prevention measures! That's all Mr. Evans talked
about. When asked 'What best practices would he suggest to the Ottawa Police?'
he answered 'Community policing... plain and simple!'
Oh and by the way, the Boston Police
have an ice cream truck..something for you to think about @
Listen, we are working hard in Vanier to make up for the
OPS' short-sightedness: We established a safety committee, we have an active
NWProgram with 1 1 Watches representing 250+ registered members; we have a
post-incident protocol — which unfortunately we have to activate almost every
month recently!; we have a petition circulating advocating for more OPS
attention to neighbourhood policing (l have a copy); we created over a dozen
tips sheets to help residents identify and report criminat activity or protect
themselves & their property against crime.
We do this because we don't have a choice — believe me,
we would much rather spend our time and energy on beautifying public spaces,
and planning park parties!! Wouldn't you?! Instead, we stretch our limited
resources dealing with issues like drug dealing, probiem addresses, sex
solicitation, and traffic infractions. That's not our job now is it?
Instead, residents like me make
presentation after presentation advocating for OPS resources; participate in
OPS community consultation groups, and try to safe-guard the resources we do
have from being further eroded. Frankly, I'm very tired.
And let's remember, we are volunteers! And what we have done
to mitigate the damage OPS is doing to my neighbourhood is simply not
sustainable.
To have but one problem address
actioned by OPS takes a tremendous amount of time, commitment, and constant
pestering! Sometimes for months!! Reporting fatigue is our worse enemy...and
should be OPS' enemy also.
I know that OPS is planning a Community Policing Forum in
May which is a great start... unfortunately, the budget is now so I beg you to
help us ensure that the financial resources are there to implement the ideas
and recommendations that are sure to come out of that Forum.
Lastly, I want to take a moment to counter what DC Bell
said at the last PSB meeting: You agreed that eliminating 40 NO positions was a
very bad idea and DC Bell saying that 10 community response officers (with
another 10 next year) and the officers from B&Bs and PIVOT compensates for
the loss of NOS. No it doesn't because together that still falls short of the
NOS we had up to 2017, it does not make up for eliminating 5 of the 15 CPO positions
and adding 3 or more neighbourhoods to the catchment areas of the remaining
CPOs.
Oh and one last thing: We need the CRU officers to be
neighbourhood-specific and we need stronger traffic enforcement. I've run out
of time or else Pd be glad to make the argument of why... it wouldn't be
anything you haven't heard many times already. Thank you for your time
Lucie Marleau, Founder — Crime Prevention
Vanier
Neighbourhood Watch Program Volunteer Coordinator —
Vanier