The British Columbia Government has unveiled $ 5 million in new funds for an initiative to repress real estate crime and street disorder.
The province claims that the new Community Security and Application Program of the Targeted Act (C-STEP) will give the police more tools to meet street crimes, including display, theft and material damage.
The Minister of State for Community Security and Integrated Services, Terry Yung, a former Vancouver police officer, said that the program was the result of listening to communities and the police in the province.
“We heard strongly and empty what they wanted, and crimes at the street level such as theft, theft, undermining business and sometimes making it untenable.
The program is administered by the RCMP, which opened its doors to financing police requests from the province two weeks ago.
The province claims that C-STEP financing will be available to support the increase in police patrols targeting street crime such as consumption and trafficking in open drugs, disturbances and public poisoning, and to work with businesses and social services on coordinated plans to resolve street disorders.
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“We are not going to be normative in the place where the funding will go, we want the police services to offer operational plans, requests and we expect a matrix to find out where this money will take up the most urgent challenges they face at the street level,” said Yung.
He said the program will complete the existing specialized survey and the application of the targeted law, which targets repeated violent offenders.
The initiative is worrying about crime and street disorders that make headlines in the province.
The retailers reported increases in violent shoplifting flight incidents, with drugs in London recently saying that it was planning to close its location at the limit of downtown Vancouver.
Earlier this week, the city of Williams Lake said it was considering declaring a state of emergency To deal with the problem, while Nanaimo residents organized repeated gatherings on what they say, it is a spiral public disorder.
Williams Lake City Councilor Scott Nelson said the community appreciates that the province finally pays attention to the issue.
But he said that the new program would not respond to what he believes to be the root of the problem: people with untreated mental health and outbuildings in the streets.
“The announcement that they made today is useful, but that does not solve the real problem of obtaining these people the right services and the right help for a long time, and I think that is what all municipalities ask,” he said.
“They refused to put the money in it, they refused to make the appropriate involuntary beds … We probably have 15-20 in Lake Williams which should not be on the street.”
British Columbia is deploying its involuntary treatment program, with the first open beds in the preliminary center in the south of the Fraser, and a second set which soon opens up to people who are not already in the criminal justice system.
The program is however welcomed by business groups and the BC Association of Chiefs of Police.
“This initiative reflects a clear recognition of the urgent public security challenges faced by the downtown cores, including the growing impact of non-violent delinquents and recurrences on small businesses,” said Jane Talbot, president and chief executive officer of the Downtown Vancouver Business Association.
“Everything not forward is important, and we see it as an important and encouraging movement in the right direction.”
When asked if the money would be enough to combat real estate crime throughout the province, Yung described the $ 5 million as a “beginner investment”.
He added that the province continues to defend the “significant reforms of the surety” promised by the new liberal government of Prime Minister Mark Carney.
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