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LRT Safety

Greenspace said:
It is unlikely EPS has the resources to do transit and probably would ask for more money. City has invested heavily in TPO's but they need to be given more powers to deal with situations. That requires the City to ask the province for more powers for TPO's which I believe is in the works.

Definitely politics being played but not sure the Chief is entirely to blame. City Council decided they wanted to use TPO's which are cheaper and probably never thought we'd have the issues we're now facing.
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I wonder if resources is just an excuse and they just want to avoid all those icky downtown problems.

Much more comfy driving by in a patrol car, rather than being out on the street with more of presence.

Whatever it is, the city yet again seems to mess up almost everything when it comes to dealing with downtown.
 
^You are correct. It is a trend with police service across North America where police don't want to deal with issues of social disorder, rather having Peace Officers or private security deal with that. Police want to solve murders and do more glamourous stuff. Being a beat cop Downtown has minimal appeal due to all the things you'd have to deal with.
 
i think transit safety suffers from one of the same issues regarding safety and crime statistics across the city.

statistics are much like computers - garbage in/garbage out.

two examples, the first of which i have mentioned elsewhere.

it was recently reported that complaints regarding encampments have increased 60% in the past year. i would take the position that problems with encampments have increased a lot more than 60% in the past year, it's just the proportion of them being reporting is a lot less than it was a year ago as citizens get tired of constant reporting with few results. this is strictly a personal observation noting also that it's irrespective of whether the root causes are the city's responsibility to solve or not.

i spent some time this morning with a friend who moved after being shot at in his front yard with his baby daughter by an individual with a pellet gun, escaping to his house while the perpetrator continued to shoot at the house. the police didn't even respond - nor did they record it as a shooting incident - as "there wasn't a real gun involved". was this the same individual subsequently shot by police at the funicular for not dropping a pellet gun? darned if i know but that's not the point.

the point is that the statistics we rely on aren't always complete nor are they always completely accurate. they are too easily manipulated based on the story the statisticians want to tell and what they want to get from that story. those that want to say "it's worse, look at the statistics" and those that want to say "it's getting better, look at the statistics" are too often the same ones creating the statistics they want us to pay attention to..
 
Yesterday, I saw EMS personnel tend to a homeless person (overdose) on 100 Street. I still would like to see 211 posted in more locations.
 
Greenspace said:
^You are correct. It is a trend with police service across North America where police don't want to deal with issues of social disorder, rather having Peace Officers or private security deal with that. Police want to solve murders and do more glamourous stuff. Being a beat cop Downtown has minimal appeal due to all the things you'd have to deal with.
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On this point, for all the hoopla we have heard about increasing policing and presence....I walk around downtown all day every day living downtown and I do not see beat cops. I do not see cops on bikes, I do not see them walking, I do not see them stopping off at the cafes or restaurants on 104th street to check in, and when I was at Pazzo Pazzo 3 weeks ago and the window was smashed during my dinner the owner said for every time he calls the cops they show up hours later or a day later.

I am not saying there are NONE patrolling just because I don't see them, but there is certainly a disconnect between what we are hearing (increased police numbers and presence) and what I have personally seen and experienced.
 
I heard from a friend seeing police chase a man with a knife down a street a few years ago. He was nimble on foot, they stayed in their squad car. Guess who got away easily?
 
CaptainBL said:
On this point, for all the hoopla we have heard about increasing policing and presence....I walk around downtown all day every day living downtown and I do not see beat cops. I do not see cops on bikes, I do not see them walking, I do not see them stopping off at the cafes or restaurants on 104th street to check in, and when I was at Pazzo Pazzo 3 weeks ago and the window was smashed during my dinner the owner said for every time he calls the cops they show up hours later or a day later.

I am not saying there are NONE patrolling just because I don't see them, but there is certainly a disconnect between what we are hearing (increased police numbers and presence) and what I have personally seen and experienced.
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From the outside looking in, it sure seems like EPS has really lost the plot within their organizational culture. They act like by policing problematic areas that they’re doing us a massive favour and we should be so incredibly grateful to them for it while appearing to do the absolute bare minimum. Their apparent lack of pride in policing and integrating themselves into neighbourhood communities shows well in posts like this highlighting how they don’t show presence in public, there is no regular outreach to businesses struggling with crime, and most of the time they prefer to sit in their cruisers and only get out when they absolutely have to.

At this point, there’s no doubt in my mind that being assigned to patrol downtown proper is likely considered a punishment among EPS officers, where those who screwed up or pissed off the wrong high up get stuck with it—when it should be that they assign their best and brightest officers to be working to restore a feeling of safety and civility out of a feeling of duty and pride to serve and protect our city.

And within saying all of this: I get it, being a cop is one hard ass job these days. Having your interactions filmed and posted out of context, having to deal with the worst of the worst constantly all shift, and the staggering increase in crime and social disorder within a short time frame is an extremely difficult task to manage. But there needs to be a new approach taken within EPS because their current one is frankly insulting to me as a citizen of Edmonton.
 
trevorhayden said:
The Edmonton ethos: overpaid and underworked.
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The World ethos, not Edmonton limited. As an example, the project I am on right now in BC - laborers are getting $49/hr - clearing $5,000/week to hold up a shovel all day. Foreman are receiving their $180,000 "work" truck for free when the project ends. 1,300 workers on site but only 50 or so are actually working.
 
trevorhayden said:
I heard from a friend seeing police chase a man with a knife down a street a few years ago. He was nimble on foot, they stayed in their squad car. Guess who got away easily?
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Wasn't a cop chase like on tv? Jumping garbage dumpsters to climb over the fences in the back alley?
 
Are there underlying issues we need to solve? Yes.

Does Vancouver have significantly more homeless people, drug users, and gang problems? Yes.

Stop making excuses and fix it Edmonton. There will always be a level of drug use, poverty, and homelessness. Make our critical infrastructure safe.

What do we need? The army?
 
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