More cops expected downtown

Local News

By RAYMOND BOWE BARRIE EXAMINER

Updated 22 hours ago

Downtown Barrie will see more police officers walking the beat in the coming weeks and better hours at the department's bus terminal office.

Barrie Police Chief Mark Neelin is expected to make an official announcement Monday at an 11 a.m. press conference at the Maple Avenue terminal.

Downtown policing has been a concern in recent months, foll ow i n g a series of ugly and deadly incidents in the city's core.

 

Municipal funding has allowed the police department to bolster its downtown presence by hiring four officers, up from approximately a dozen currently patrolling the area.

 

"(People) want to see more officers in the downtown on patrol," Neelin said. "It's taken us until now to get those officers hired and on the road so we can get this initiative underway."

With the hiring of 10 new officers this year -- including the four who will work downtown -- the police force has increased from 218 to 228.

Downtown councillor and mayor-elect Jeff Lehman believes the new officers will help.

"More officers on the street is probably the single best thing that can be done to deal with crime," Lehman said.

A 24-year-old Innisfil man died Aug. 14 in a Toronto hospital after being stabbed during an early morning fight on Clapperton Street. The fight included four people shortly after the bars let out, police said. A 23-year-old Barrie man is charged with manslaughter and aggravated assault.

On Aug. 28, a man celebrating his 19th birthday suffered a cut to his face after being struck with a liquor bottle at a Dunlop Street East bar at closing time. The victim's 21-year-old brother was also treated for a lacerated scalp.

"As councillor, I continue to have concerns about criminal activity downtown, particularly violence after the bars close," Lehman said. "I heard lots of concern about this from Barrie residents during the election campaign as well. I think the new officers are a welcome step in addressing some of these concerns."

"I see this as a great step forward," he said, adding the long-term answer is a "more prosperous Dunlop Street" with more people living and working in and around the downtown.

Residents made it clear to police they didn't want to lose police officers in other areas of the city by redeploying them downtown, the chief said.

"Frankly, the officers in the outlying areas are already fully tasked with issues outside the downtown," Neelin said, "so we didn't have resources that we could move to the downtown until we got the funding to hire additional officers."

For the last year, Barrie police have been looking closely at how Calgary police are dealing with their downtown.

"We've taken their model and obviously shrunk it, size-wise, to make it fit the city of Barrie," Neelin said.

One concern that was identified locally was the police department's office at the bus terminal, which is closed more often than not, Neelin said.

"When an officer is there, it's available," he said. "There are no set hours right now, so we're looking at having the office open regularly through the day so people can drop in there and use it as a police station."

rbowe@thebarrieexaminer.com twitter.com/RaymondBowe