WE
KNOW WHERE THE LIBERALS ARE WASTING $100 MILLION A YEAR THAT SHOULD BE
GOING INTO FRONT-LINE POLICING!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Barrhaven residents grill police chief on security: 300 residents cram into meeting -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Senior police and city officials last night faced Barrhaven residents angry about security issues in the fast-growing suburb. About 300 residents lined up dozens deep at the microphones at Walter Baker Centre to question police Chief Vince Bevan and Mayor Bob Chiarelli. The meeting came four weeks after 18-year-old Jennifer Teague was killed and her body concealed on a wooded trail. But Chief Bevan only touched briefly on that investigation. On that matter, Chief Bevan said there is nothing new to report, and said there are a number of details about the crime scene police will not release because they need to keep them secret to help them identify any suspect. The panel was part of Councillor Jan Harder's annual constituency meeting. Panel members faced residents who were often angry and critical of the services offered by police in Barrhaven. Resident Stephen Bates questioned police response time. "A neighbour of mine was outside when he witnessed a man break into a home on my street," said Mr. Bates. "He phoned police and it took more than 30 minutes for an officer to arrive. "I see all these nice parks and green spaces being erected. I would rather have my child play in a mud puddle than not have safe streets." Chief Bevan said there is a
particular need for police officers in Barrhaven. According to police Supt. Lynda Gibson, there are only three police officers patrolling Barrhaven streets on a daily basis. If there is a serious incident, they can call in extra officers. The department hopes it can get the cash it needs from the province to get at least three more officers for the area. Residents tossed out questions and comments about street racing and drug abuse, graffiti and monitoring pedophile offenders who have been released from prison and are living in the community. Mr. Chiarelli said while he respects the concerns of the residents, they must also begin helping themselves. "You own the community, you own the neighbourhood. You take ownership of us," he told the crowd, adding that if only one per cent of Barrhaven's 70,000 people is engaging in questionable behavior, then only about 700 people are doing something problematic. He called on the community to help control that problem minority. Police encouraged residents to report any and all behaviour they considered to be strange. Complaining to your neighbour doesn't tell police what's going on, they said. Mr. Chiarelli said neighbourhood watch groups and community police initiatives are already established in older neighbourhoods. New neighbourhoods haven't had time to piece together these programs. The panel hopes to create a plan it can use to address policing issues and concerns in other fast-growing communities such as Riverside South, Orleans and Kanata. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Police seek Ontario's help to beef up force: Suburban growth spurs need for 182 new officers, service says -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Ottawa Police Service said yesterday it has formally applied for provincial assistance to hire 182 urgently needed officers. The force hopes to qualify under the province's "Safer Communities -- 1,000 Officers Partnership Program" to hire 90 more officers over the next three years, as well as pay retroactively for the recent hiring of 92 officers. Under the hiring program, 50 per cent of an officer's salary is covered by the province, to a maximum of $35,000. The city will know by Nov. 21. If the province agrees to pay for all 182 police positions being requested, the city would get $4.2 million in help. During the last provincial election, Premier Dalton McGuinty promised 1,000 more police officers on Ontario streets by the end of four years. Ottawa has been hiring officers and plans to hire more to cover rapidly growing suburban neighbourhoods such as Riverside South, Barrhaven and Orleans. Some of the officers will focus on problems such as youth crime, marijuana grow operations, child pornography and child exploitation through the Internet. The former Conservative government had a program to help municipalities hire more police, but Ottawa police officials believe they were shortchanged, getting funding for 32 more officers when the police service believed it should have been given help with 70 hires. Police spokesman Martin Champoux said the department couldn't understand why the funding was short under the Conservatives. Earlier this year, the police service told council it expected it would require an $11.2-million increase in its $174-million operating budget for 2006. With the province's assistance on hiring costs, the budget increase would be about $8 million, or 4.5 per cent. The police service says it needs to hire more officers to maintain a reasonable ratio of police to residents, currently one officer for 744 citizens. Public demands for service from city police are growing. In 2000, the force handled 257,989 calls. Last year, it handled 361,463 calls in Ottawa, including 76,655 classified as urgent. One recent initiative of the police is to hire more officers to enforce long-neglected traffic violations. Eighty-five per cent of the police service's costs are wages and benefits and some of those costs -- retention bonuses ordered by a provincial labour arbitrator, for example -- aren't under the control of Ottawa officials. The police service has been seeing large budget increases for the last several years, including a $15.2-million increase for this year. The police service has a gross operating budget of $174 million this year and a staff of 1,673. In a recent interview, Councillor Michel Bellemare, a member of the police services board, said police managers don't entirely understand why service demands are increasing as much as they are. But he said there's great reluctance to tamper with the budget of such an essential service as police. "I don't think we know exactly what's going on. It's just growing and growing and growing. The pressures on the police force are enormous." |