Emokhare Paul Anthony
Daily Herald
Prince Albert’s elected officials urged residents to contact their MLAs if they have concerns about crime because the causes are out of the City’s hands.
Several city councillors made the comments while debating a letter sent to council by a resident on Riverside Drive who was concerned about public safety.
Coun. Blake Edwards was the most vocal speaker at Monday’s meeting. He said residents are tired of seeing offenders get arrested, then released back into the community on conditions.
“I think they are, on the police side of things, being caught often and being charged often, but it’s catch and release,” Edwards said during the meeting. “Out they go, and that’s a problem. It’s time our residents wrote about that.”
Coun. Dawn Kilmer was the first to suggest administration urge letter writers to contact their MP or MLA. She also urged administration to contact the letter writers and see if the city could get a copy of the MLA’s or MP’s response.
Count. Charlene Miller and Tony Head said crime is an issue they frequently hear about, and like Kilmer and Edwards, urged residents to contact other levels of government.
“It’s sad that everyone knows these issues exist, we see them, we know where they go to, but no one wants to take action” said Miller.
“We’ve been saying this for years now, so it doesn’t fall on deaf ears,” Head added. “It makes sense—a lot of the letter does make sense.”
Mayor Greg Dionne said he’s heard frequent concerns from residents about crime on Kemp Crescent in the East Flat. The area has been in the news after officers were called to a home on the crescent after complaints about a disturbance. They found a man with severe injuries, who later died in hospital. The crime is being investigated as a homicide.
Dionne said people arrested for crimes in that area are frequently released on conditions, which they typically do not follow.
“If we don’t deal with them, they keep escalating and escalating and escalating,” Dionne said.
“They find the person, they get charged, they’re out for two more years, and they’re still on the streets doing the same damn thing, and that’s a big part of the problem, which frustrates the police as well,” Edwards added.
A letter written to council by a member of the community raised concerns about the involuntary apprehension and treatment of those who require it due to mental health and addictions was the main discussion at the council meeting recently.
“We can no longer go downtown, to the riverbank, or event the major shopping centres in Cornerstone and soon The Yard after dark and feel safe in our city,” reads the letter. “Relying again on anecdotal evidence rather than statistics, it appears that property crime, and especially violent crime, are surging in our community.”
The letter writer called on city council to ask the provincial government to fund a pilot project in Prince Albert establishing “a treatment/residential custodial centre on the outskirts of the city for the involuntary apprehension and treatment of those who require it due to mental health and addiction issues that prevent them from willfully seeking and/or accepting treatment.”
The letter writer wrote that Prince Albert could no longer wait on someone else to fix the problem, so the City must take the initiative and “solve the problem ourselves.”
