Talks with police about downtown crime stats go behind closed doors

Do downtown businesses have any right to know whether city police crime-fighting initiatives are succeeding?

Should the general public be told whether Queenstown is getting safer or more dangerous?

Can you, a mere citizen, be trusted with such information?

Are you even smart enough to comprehend it?

The Downtown Association is continuing to wrestle with these and other questions as it tries to respond to demands for secret Sault Ste. Marie Police Service occurrence data from the city's core.

Last month, Const. Emily Coccimiglio and Const. Alison Kirkpatrick, the community safety officers who regularly attend Downtown Association meetings, were put on the hot seat by board member Frank Gaccione.

"Are there any numbers that we can share with our merchants on Queen Street? How things are progressing, if it's getting better?" Gaccione asked.

After tap-dancing around the question for a bit, the officers finally conceded they weren't sure their superiors would allow them to release such information.

At this month's Downtown Association meeting, held one week ago on Apr. 14, no one put Coccimiglio and Kirkpatrick on the hot seat.

They didn't participate in the virtual meeting.

Board chair Kristi Cistaro announced that she had met privately earlier in the day with "some of our police service partners."

Going forward, Cistaro said, requests for police statistics will be handled differently.

Such requests will no longer be presented to the officers at the board's monthly board meetings, which are required by law to be open to the public.

"We discussed how best to ensure an effective and productive flow of information," Cistaro said.

Any board members seeking police statistics will now be asked to submit their requests at private meetings attended by police representatives, Downtown Association executive director Salvatore Marchese and board member Kelly Walker.

"Any concerns that we have regarding public safety, what types of initiatives we should be undertaking, what kind of guidance and direction we're looking for from our police partners, get that input into Salvatore on a regular basis," Cistaro advised her board.

"And monthly, he's going to make sure that's supplied to our policing partners in advance to give them an opportunity to compile the information they need to have a productive discussion with us."

The information will then be presented at the board's public meetings as part of Marchese's monthly management report, Cistaro said.

"I'm optimistic that it's going to be a really effective way for us to proceed, and see a lot more produced from those discussions."

Marchese tells SooToday that city police representatives will no longer attend the Downtown Association's public meetings, unless there's a matter concerning them on the agenda. 

Board member Paul Mason said he got a lot of feedback after the question of police statistics was discussed at last month's board meeting.

"I'm sure a lot of you did," Mason told his fellow board members.

"Having access to crime stats is important for the board – and Sal – to do our job and plan strategy, that kind of stuff."

If the Downtown Association is successful in getting neighbourhood-specific data on downtown crime, it still must decide whether that information will be made public on the association's website.

Ward 2 Coun. Lisa Vezeau-Allen, a member of the Downtown Association board and vice-chair of Sault Ste. Marie Police Services Board, told last month's meeting that city police provide regular statistical reports on local crime, but those reports aren't neighbourhood-specific.

"I would caution against having that sort of thing on the web site, because that just creates fear-based action," Vezeau-Allen said.

"Data is something that not everyone really understands, unless it's something that you take a deep dive into," she said.

"Data can be skewed.... You can always make things look better or you can make things look worse, depending on how you manipulate that data."

"I don't know what purpose data would have in terms of increasing safety in our downtown. I think it should just create fear, for potentially no reason," Vezeau-Allen said.

Paul Mason wants to see Sault Ste. Marie's crime data presented on something like CityProtect.com.

Sudbury, Thunder Bay and Kenora all make real-time crime statistics available on that web site, including assaults and break-ins, time, day of the month, etc., Mason said.

Mason asked Cistaro if, under the new disclosure arrangement, police will now be providing regular reports when requested to do so by the Downtown Association.

"Yes," Cistaro told him.

"We need to know this information to do our jobs. Fair enough?" Mason asked.

"Yes," Cistaro said.

Cistaro said discussions so far have suggested any data presented on the association's website should be "focused in a productive way."

"If the data is telling us... there's been a rash of break-ins though the roof, we would be sharing information with our membership on how to prevent the types of crimes that we're seeing."

Anything beyond that, she said, would need to be discussed by the association's board or at least by its executive.