Downtown Crime

[Oliver_William]

You secure the garbage, put additional lighting, add cameras and still have weekly events such as this... and we wonder why folks don't want to live in Downtown these days. This kind of shit MUST change in a very material way before it becomes attractive again and the fact that most seem to not care continues to be upsetting,
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Yes I have seen this BS downtown and in other parts of the city for residential dumpsters, business dumpsters and also city garbage cans. I’ve seen this also in Calgary and Vancouver. It happens to us in our condo as well. I just put my gloves on and clean it up. I don’t want it to sit too long because the wind will blow all the garbage everywhere and look even worse.

 

[thommyjo]

Yes I have seen this BS downtown and it other parts of the city for residential dumpsters, business dumpsters and also city garbage cans. I’ve seen this also in Calgary and Vancouver. It happens to us in our condo as well. I just put my gloves on and clean it up. I don’t want it to sit too long because the wind will blow all the garbage everywhere and look even worse.

Yeah; I clean up debris from the dumpster in my alley almost weekly. It’s really an issue with unlocked dumpsters all over the city I’d say. 0 control/accountability.

Downtown at least has cleaners (although arguably not enough). I’d love to see numbers one day on how many people we actually employ who are out there and what their shift times are. More 6-8am cleaners in the summer would be nice before everyone wakes up/gets downtown. Seems like stuff is bad in the mornings and then clean by 2pm. But by that point, bad impressions have been made.

 

[Offworld]

You secure the garbage, put additional lighting, add cameras and still have weekly events such as this... and we wonder why folks don't want to live in Downtown these days. This kind of shit MUST change in a very material way before it becomes attractive again and the fact that most seem to not care continues to be upsetting,
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Was that the byproduct of a large bin being rolled out hours in advance of pick-up? At a condo I used to live at, the bins had locks on them and each owner had a key to unlock and re-secure the bin. It made a huge difference. I'd highly recommend that approach.

 

[David A]

Well that's what you get when you have a judicial industry instead of a justice system...
But before you go all Charles Bronson, maybe the city should start building halfway houses in the neighborhoods where judges live?
And if that doesn't change things, give repeat offenders a one way ticket to Ottawa where the laws are written!

Now there's an idea - right now 24 Sussex Drive in Ottawa is underused housing. If our politicians can't get a handle on these problems, turn it into halfway housing.

 

[TAS]

What a sad story regarding that parkade stabbing last week - victim was here for studies. Such a strange story, too, in terms of what happened.

Family and community stunned by fatal stabbing of 'nice guy' by random stranger in Edmonton parkade

EPS downtown division patrol officers responded to a report of a weapons complaint in a parkade in the area of 101 Street and 102 Avenue.

edmontonjournal.com

 

[IanO]

Was that the byproduct of a large bin being rolled out hours in advance of pick-up? At a condo I used to live at, the bins had locks on them and each owner had a key to unlock and re-secure the bin. It made a huge difference. I'd highly recommend that approach.

Nope. They have a key too. We have implemented that a few years ago and it has helped a lot, but this kind of stuff happens regularly around the building, including used drug items, feces, stolen items etc.

While any Downtown will have some of that, when it is a regular issue to contend with, you begin to ask yourself if you want to 'deal with it'. Our building have lost quite a few folks in the last few years because of it and sadly, that is a common trend/theme.

A renewed effort and commitment to zero tolerance for crap would be nice.

 

[Calfaer]

This behaviour, while not necessarily new, feels like it's definitely become much more noticeable and prominent. Super frustrating for all those who have to deal with this. There's seemingly little to no consequences for doing these kinds of things. Even if you catch their face in HD quality on a security camera, nothing really happens. I've had a lot of neighbours in my area complain they've captured clear footage showing a perpetrator's face on their security cameras stealing/vandalizing/etc and police won't really do anything with it.

 

[yeggator]

There's seemingly little to no consequences for doing these kinds of things. Even if you catch their face in HD quality on a security camera, nothing really happens. I've had a lot of neighbours in my area complain they've captured clear footage showing a perpetrator's face on their security cameras stealing/vandalizing/etc and police won't really do anything with it.

Gonna sound like a disillusioned Gotham City police officer, but hear me out. The police can’t act because even if they made an arrest, the part of the justice system involved with prosecuting and sentencing these offenders won’t do anything. Then the cops waste more resources arresting the same people over and over and burn out. I’m glad @HappyJazzz is acknowledging this issue for what it is: the feds who write the Criminal Code and write the sentencing guidelines have gone soft on crime, and offenders are acting with impunity. And until that gets resolved top-down (with a tough-on-crime federal government) and bottom-up (with judges giving sentences with actual teeth for once), our goals of increasing Downtown’s vibrancy, attracting office jobs, restoring its contribution to the tax base, reining in our police budget and winning people over to walkable cities and transit will all be rendered moot. This is much bigger than city itself - Edmonton’s in a bind until this is resolved at the national level.

 

[HappyJazzz]

Gonna sound like a disillusioned Gotham City police officer, but hear me out. The police can’t act because even if they made an arrest, the part of the justice system involved with prosecuting and sentencing these offenders won’t do anything. Then the cops waste more resources arresting the same people over and over and burn out. I’m glad @HappyJazzz is acknowledging this issue for what it is: the feds who write the Criminal Code and write the sentencing guidelines have gone soft on crime, and offenders are acting with impunity. And until that gets resolved top-down (with a tough-on-crime federal government) and bottom-up (with judges giving sentences with actual teeth for once), our goals of increasing Downtown’s vibrancy, attracting office jobs, restoring its contribution to the tax base, reining in our police budget and winning people over to walkable cities and transit will all be rendered moot. This is much bigger than city itself - Edmonton’s in a bind until this is resolved at the national level.

And that's what I said we have a judicial industry rather than a justice system.

There's a lot more money to be made by lawyers, judges, police, insurance and remediation companies and so on with the catch and release approach to crime.

While it certainly comes off as barbaric, I doubt the Saudis have a huge problem with repeat offenders..

Not saying that's where Canada should go either, but its clear that what's being done now isn't working.

 

[yeggator]

Not saying that's where Canada should go either, but its clear that what's being done now isn't working.

The much talked-about bail reform for repeat offenders would be a good start. But more needs to be done. I don’t mind bringing back Harper-era mandatory minimums, particularly for violent crimes. And while we’re at it, we should consider treating 14+ violent offenders like adults too. Plus guaranteed prosecution for theft. We don’t even try anymore.

 

[Oliver_William]

I just watched an interesting documentary about the issues Montreal is facing in their metro system. It is called ‘Détresse dans le metro de Montréal’. It was produced by the SRC (French CBC) in April 2024. In the documentary they explain that the transit constables attend more than 190 interventions by day for homelessness and drug use. They also discussed the negative effects that gang members and drug dealers have upon the homeless population. There is also an average greater than one serious assault in the Montreal metro system each day again caused by homelessness and drug use. A lot of the interventions they filmed would look very familiar to what we see in our transit system specifically the LRT.

 

[Greenspace]

City Council has not passed the updated Public Spaces Bylaw, which seems to have stalled and I personally believe contributed to the city manager leaving. It was an important omnibus bill that would try to address open drug use/loitering on transit and public spaces. Right now there isn't enough tools or fines. TPOs can get social support but many of the drug-involved community members do not accept help. Therefore there needs to be a blunt tool, last resort option before EPS needs to intervene.

 

[yeggator]

City Council has not passed the updated Public Spaces Bylaw, which seems to have stalled and I personally believe contributed to the city manager leaving. It was an important omnibus bill that would try to address open drug use/loitering on transit and public spaces. Right now there isn't enough tools or fines. TPOs can get social support but many of the drug-involved community members do not accept help. Therefore there needs to be a blunt tool, last resort option before EPS needs to intervene.

News article said that it got sent back to admin for potential amendments, which would be ready by this month. So hopefully, we’ll see this come back up in council in the coming weeks and pass.

 

[Gronk!]

City Council has not passed the updated Public Spaces Bylaw, which seems to have stalled and I personally believe contributed to the city manager leaving. It was an important omnibus bill that would try to address open drug use/loitering on transit and public spaces. Right now there isn't enough tools or fines. TPOs can get social support but many of the drug-involved community members do not accept help. Therefore there needs to be a blunt tool, last resort option before EPS needs to intervene.

News article said that it got sent back to admin for potential amendments, which would be ready by this month. So hopefully, we’ll see this come back up in council in the coming weeks and pass.

As long as this omnibus bill finally shuts up that annoying megaphone preacher, I'm good! Every weekday during the noon hour I always see this guy rambling incoherently about Jesus Christ at the NE corner of Jasper Ave/101 St or on 100 St near the ECC entrance.

 

[HappyJazzz]

City Council has not passed the updated Public Spaces Bylaw, which seems to have stalled and I personally believe contributed to the city manager leaving. It was an important omnibus bill that would try to address open drug use/loitering on transit and public spaces. Right now there isn't enough tools or fines. TPOs can get social support but many of the drug-involved community members do not accept help. Therefore there needs to be a blunt tool, last resort option before EPS needs to intervene.

Does anyone truly believe that fines are going to be an effective way of addressing this issue?

I do have certain amount of empathy for some of those people, at root a lot of substance abuse is a cope for a despair problem.

But if people routinely refuse help, particularly those who have an aggressive or violent nature, perhaps we should consider bypassing the one way ticket to Ottawa and donate them to the Ukrainian war effort instead?