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Downtown Crime

ADob said:
That's the ugly side effect, isn't it? When formerly compassionate people have now lost most of their compassion. I hate how I sound, how I am on this topic now, I absolutely hate it, but at the end of the day, if I'm being honest, while I care about society as a whole, I want my people to be safe.
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It’s also very different to feel compassion towards someone living on the streets due to poverty or circumstance or disability, vs to be asked to tolerate the extremes of drug use, addiction, and severe mental health issues that we are seeing today.

The former is little risk to your safety. The latter has seen random murders and attacks.
 
Airboy said:
I remember when I was an instructor for CPS mountain bike unit. We were riding through downtown and saw open drug deals going on. Dealers didn't expect us coming through on bikes. Edmonton was better back then. But its is there.
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Do you mind sharing details about what an instructor would teach? Sounds interesting.
 
Walked 9 blocks back home from dinner tonight and not one Peace Officer or EPS in view.

Plenty of 'stuff happening' and many issues front and centre.

Visitors from Toronto had some interesting comments about their walkabouts today.

How do we not have far more of a visible, active, engaging presence out and about in our CBD post-dinner hour when many are headed to hotels, parkades, etc???

Someone, anyone?
 
And the council's responses to our emails tend to uniformly focus on the vulnerability aspect with a side of blaming the province. Now of course there are some people who are truly vulnerable, and they are likely to be taken advantage of by the bad actors on the streets, but there are plenty of asshats who need to be put away and whose "difficult childhoods" are irrelevant. And yes, of course, the province isn't ponying up their share, but that also does not address the issue. So it's woke posturing combined with blame. And the issue remains that many of us feel unsafe in our streets. I didn't worry a huge amount about gang or targeted violence since, you know, I'm not in a gang, but the random stabbings and killing of people who just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time is frightening.

Having said that, I don't know how anyone is supposed to get through to the EPS. Seeing so many cop duos driving around the city safely ensconced in their SUVs is disconcerting. I'm sure some of them are doing useful things and going to important places, but come on! Maybe living IN Edmonton really should be a requirement for being a city cop. Clearly there's no skin in the game here.
 
ADob said:
And the council's responses to our emails tend to uniformly focus on the vulnerability aspect with a side of blaming the province. Now of course there are some people who are truly vulnerable, and they are likely to be taken advantage of by the bad actors on the streets, but there are plenty of asshats who need to be put away and whose "difficult childhoods" are irrelevant. And yes, of course, the province isn't ponying up their share, but that also does not address the issue. So it's woke posturing combined with blame. And the issue remains that many of us feel unsafe in our streets. I didn't worry a huge amount about gang or targeted violence since, you know, I'm not in a gang, but the random stabbings and killing of people who just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time is frightening.

Having said that, I don't know how anyone is supposed to get through to the EPS. Seeing so many cop duos driving around the city safely ensconced in their SUVs is disconcerting. I'm sure some of them are doing useful things and going to important places, but come on! Maybe living IN Edmonton really should be a requirement for being a city cop. Clearly there's no skin in the game here.
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Stats that continue to stand out.

Edmonton has 5,000 living rough on our streets versus 3,000 in Calgary.

That is a MAJOR difference and province needs to do much more here. We all remember how the province was funding significantly more shelter spaces in Calgary versus here despite higher homelessness here.

Calgary is well below Edmonton in terms of funding for police per capita and subsequently they are below us in terms of number of officers per capita.

Edmonton has many more jails/correctional facilities than Calgary, more people released daily in Edmonton and left here without means to support themselves. That unfairly falls on city to manage.

Province definitely must do more. Our police need a new plan/approach.
 
TAS said:
Stats that continue to stand out.

Edmonton has 5,000 living rough on our streets versus 3,000 in Calgary.

That is a MAJOR difference and province needs to do much more here. We all remember how the province was funding significantly more shelter spaces in Calgary versus here despite higher homelessness here.

Calgary is well below Edmonton in terms of funding for police per capita and subsequently they are below us in terms of number of officers per capita.

Edmonton has many more jails/correctional facilities than Calgary, more people released daily in Edmonton and left here without means to support themselves. That unfairly falls on city to manage.

Province definitely must do more. Our police need a new plan/approach.
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Plus, ALL of the habitual and stereotypical "street folk" from the Northern part of Canada - guess where they go.....DT YEG. Those numbers are never taken into account. Typical UCP where Smitty gives a General/sweeping average of students per teacher in AB of 14:1, her and merry band of idiots are doing the same for the homeless.....
 
My brother (now retired) was a sergeant in the Edmonton Police Service and spent his latter years working in the Street Crimes Unit. He used to wear very elaborate disguises and hang out in seedy bars where it was not uncommon for idiot criminals to brag about upcoming "planned" heists or wrong doings. He told me about several robberies that were foretold through his unit-- the one that stands out in my mind was one that was planned for the CIBC branch in Lansdowne (my business branch at the time). On the day of, there were a dozen or so officers, some in the bank looking like customers and some outside covering potential escape routes and when the heist "happened" all three idiots were immediately apprehended. On a different occasion and when he was in a patrol car he was called to a scene in an old two-storey house in the Boyle Street district -- turned out to be a hangout for a branch of a motorcycle gang (I think they were known as "the Coffin Cheaters"). When he went into the house the "tough" guys inside started making piggy sounds and as assholes in gangs are prone to do exhibit their bravery in the form of superior numbers. My brother said nothing, bade the idiotic crew a good-night, and made the comment that it was extremely cold outside (mid-winter on one of those super-minus Celsius/Fahrenheit nights when the numbers agreed one with the other. Outside he returned to his squad car, drove to a concealed location, took his sling shot out of the glove box, and from 1/2-block distant proceeded to knock the windows out of the house occupied by the gang members. That wasn't the hilarious part -- it was only act one. One of the gang members dialed 911 to report the incident -- guess who responded to the complaint call? When my brother got there the mood was quite different than the first time he visited -- no more piggy noises. He looked around viewing several broken windows and recovered the steel marble that he had used as weapons in the "window-gate" crime, saying, "I need to take this in as evidence so we can take finger prints if there are any so we might apprehend the perpetrator." His last words as he was leaving the house for the second time were "Oh, and here is the number for a window repair shop... and bundle up it is brutally cold out there."
So... this is not advice just an observation... if I lived downtown in Edmonton and there were some ne'er-do-wells who threatened to stab me if I didn't forfeit $20 to "their cause", I would walk a safe distance off and introduce them to a pelting of steelies fired from a very well constructed sling shot -- not looking to do greater harm than causing some bruising to some lower body extremities. At 6'-4" I am not usually bothered by idiots on the street, but I would not be deterred from expressing my displeasure at their presence.
 
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johnnyboy said:
Do you mind sharing details about what an instructor would teach? Sounds interesting.
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At the time there were few people teaching MTB skills in general. but we taught Basic Bike handling skills. How to use the bike as a defensive and offensive device. How dismount at speed if you had to chase and pull a gun, ( I was not fire armed trained but could show the technique).The amount of gear they had to ride with made most bike handling harder. It was very intense at times. Military training almost. But also a lot of fun, especially the all day rides. I don't know how it was arranged but 5 of us road through the Plus 15 and into Police Headquarters, down the stairs and into the gym to make our entrance one year. . I did it for about 4 years and a couple of times in Edmonton. Most were City Police, Sheriffs, Peace officers and RCMP. And I did ride my bike down the front stairs at the Ledge as a guard watched.

It also gave me a different perspective of the cities. I saw more during that time than I though was in a "safe" city, it changed the way I saw downtowns. I don't fear them now but trust my Spidey sense. And I have learned there are some you can feel relaxed around and other to never turn your back. I occasionally will give money or buy some food for someone, but most times I let the various social agencies do their work. I also know now that its not just downtown, but the burbs can be just as bad.
 
Airboy said:
At the time there were few people teaching MTB skills in general. but we taught Basic Bike handling skills. How to use the bike as a defensive and offensive device. How dismount at speed if you had to chase and pull a gun, ( I was not fire armed trained but could show the technique).The amount of gear they had to ride with made most bike handling harder. It was very intense at times. Military training almost. But also a lot of fun, especially the all day rides. I don't know how it was arranged but 5 of us road through the Plus 15 and into Police Headquarters, down the stairs and into the gym to make our entrance one year. . I did it for about 4 years and a couple of times in Edmonton. Most were City Police, Sheriffs, Peace officers and RCMP. And I did ride my bike down the front stairs at the Ledge as a guard watched.

It also gave me a different perspective of the cities. I saw more during that time than I though was in a "safe" city, it changed the way I saw downtowns. I don't fear them now but trust my Spidey sense. And I have learned there are some you can feel relaxed around and other to never turn your back. I occasionally will give money or buy some food for someone, but most times I let the various social agencies do their work. I also know now that its not just downtown, but the burbs can be just as bad.
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This is really interesting; appreciate you sharing the insight!
 
Avenuer said:
Considering the EPS is the best-funded municipal police service in Canada, you'd think we'd see many more beat cops in and around Downtown. Where are they?
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Driving their SUVs in the 'burbs. There's no lack of personnel, just poor deployment. They'd rather have patrol vehicles in the suburbs to "show off" to suburbanites than have beat cops walking DT, because no one other than the people in central areas really cares about DT (save for a few exceptions).
 
Avenuer said:
Considering the EPS is the best-funded municipal police service in Canada, you'd think we'd see many more beat cops in and around Downtown. Where are they?
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Yes, EPS is yet another example of the Fermi Paradox with respect to downtown Edmonton. I do feel that some of the problems we have are because things get out of hand when there is no regular police presence.
 
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