What causes downtown crime? Bob Davies hopes to find out

Sault Ste. Marie Police Service Chief Bob Davies says he will seek federal government funding for a program that would help identify and address the causes of crime in the downtown area.

After Thursday’s Police Service Board meeting, Davies told SooToday.com he was disappointed Sault Police Service’s request for $68,000 in provincial funding for the program was turned down by the Ontario Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services.

Davies said the request came close to approval, “but didn’t quite fit the province’s criteria.”

“We thought it was a great idea, we were hoping to start the program in the spring of 2013,” Davies said.

Davies said Sault Police Service will now apply for federal government funding, adding that the deadline for applying is toward the end of October.

“There is federal money available,” he stated. “We still might be able to salvage this program for spring of 2013, or move our timeline back, but we want to get at [the application process] right away... We thought it was a great idea, it would have an effect on crime, not just enforcement.”
 
“We want to team up with Algoma University’s Community, Economic and Social Development program and have the students in that program gather information about crime in the downtown area, the reasons for crime in that area, gathering stories of personal experiences and bring all of that back and have a workshop,” Davies explained. “We would present that information to all the social agencies that have an interest in this, like the school boards, Canadian Mental Health Association, Women in Crisis, about 30 agencies which we think work with pieces of the overall problem downtown, and come up with an action plan.”
 
“It’s a two year program to address the root causes of why we see people on the street, why they are unemployed, why they’re homeless, why they’re roaming the street at night,” Davies said. “The big problem we have is the the overall crime downtown, the depressed condition of the downtown core which results in a lot of smash and grabs out of cars.  We get a lot of complaints from merchants at the mall and doctors’ offices where there are patients and customers who have had their cars broken into for petty items to convert to cash.”

“We get complaints about mischief in the area - notably the prostitution recently - and last year on a grander scale, the four homicides we had in one area, so we’re getting a significant amount of crime in that area of our community compared to the rest of our community."
 
“We want to address this.”
 

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