Downtown businesses 'sitting ducks' when overnight patrol halted

A new downtown business was targeted with four break-ins immediately after overnight security patrols were moved to daytime hours in November.

The owners say the daytime patrols have been not been effective in curbing the break-ins and vandalism that most often happen in the nighttime hours.

Corey Tucker and Joe Rancourt opened a Queen Street storefront for their small business in September. CJ's Dehydrated Foods & Products sells locally-made jerky, as well as hard-to-find treats from all over the world.

On Nov. 7, the security foot patrols on Queen Street shifted from overnight to only being offered during daytime hours. The very next night CJ’s was targeted with the first of four break ins in a week, resulting in a total loss of thousands of dollars of inventory.

Rancourt said CJ's was not the only business targeted, based on conversations he had with neighbours.

The store was hit three more times during that week, with a total of more than $13,000 lost in inventory and damage to the business, according to the owners.

Those losses came just days before the Downtown Association’s signature Moonlight Magic event, which attracted thousands of revellers downtown to shop at local businesses and witness the city’s tree lighting ceremony as a kickoff to the holiday shopping season.

“So all of our Christmas stock was gone and we had just gotten it, it was all imported from Europe and Mexico,” said Tucker.

In addition to losses, the pair were in harms way when they decided to spend the night during that week in November and the business was broken into once again. Tucker received minor injuries when he wrestled with a man who took a crowbar to the back door of the business. When the man ran, Rancourt said he chased him on foot to the bus terminal blocks away from the store. 

They said police were never able to positively identify or charge the man.

Rancourt said to be most effective the foot patrols need to be done overnight and must include walking the alleyways and rear doors of businesses.

“None of them use the front door when they break in,” he said.

The foot patrols were originally instituted by the Downtown Association in 2020 and the program was taken over by the city in March of 2022 for a pilot project that is approaching its one-year anniversary.

The city’s deputy CAO Tom Vair said the decision to move to daytime foot patrols was made by request of the Downtown Association.

”My understanding is that they felt a trial with day time hours when customers were visiting would be useful,” said Vair. 

The change to daylight hours did not result in any cost savings, he said. The operating hours for the foot patrols are flexible and could be changed based on the feedback of the Downtown Association.

The pilot project is being evaluated, said Vair, and a decision on continuing the pilot will be made at budget time by city council.

Downtown Association executive director Salvatore Marchese told SooToday the change to daytime foot patrols will allow for a comparison of statistics between night and day. He said anecdotally that break-ins, attempted break-ins and vandalism do seem to be worse over the run-up to Christmas.

“It’s something that seems to be targeted around this time of the year,” said Marchese.“I think it’s something we do need to focus on and find a solution because inevitably these kinds of incidents could lead to lost businesses, which is detrimental overall to the downtown.”

“I know the police are a bit stretched in terms of their overnight patrols and are trying to find a way to maximize their coverage to deal with incidents,” he added.

A request to interview a member of the Sault Ste. Marie Police Service for this article was not granted.

Tucker said he would like to see an immediate return of the overnight foot patrols.

“Patrolling in the daytime down here is useless ,” he said.

Rancourt said he sees more value in the Downtown Ambassador program, a partnership between the Downtown Association and CMHA that provides outreach workers in the downtown.

“They walk. They walk every single night to help the homeless and see if they can help, going down the alleys with no protection and they walk in the dark,” said Rancourt. “It’s a great program.”