Police put boots on the ground in three districts
New program addresses public concerns about need for more boots on the ground
“And this guy, Lazarus,” Sgt. Wayne Stangle exclaims as he walks the beat on Montreal Road and greets a familiar face.
“I met Lazarus yesterday,” he says. “How are you,” he asks the man as he approaches with a friend.
Stangle has been part of planning the launch of Ottawa police’s neighbourhood response teams (NRT) in three high-crime areas in the city — Vanier/Overbrook, Heron Gate/South End, and Carlington/Caldwell. It’s ostensibly a relaunch of the scrapped neighbourhood officers (NHO), but police are hoping that they’ve been able to revitalize the model enough that their reignited, albeit smaller, presence in the city can make a difference.
In 2017, facing budget constraints, and in a bid to become more efficient, the service began a radical restructuring of its service delivery model. Before that, the force employed a district model of neighbourhood officers to deal with community-specific issues. Various areas of the city had groups of officers who worked the neighbourhood, often on foot, and addressed resident and community concerns.
The restructuring gutted the service’s neighbourhood policing model. Neighbourhood officers were folded back into patrol, and instead of being free to deal with the needs of the neighbourhood on any given day, they were expected to respond to 911 emergencies as they happened. The community was outraged. Gone were the relationships and the quick action of officers who knew all the players and knew how to solve issues.
Hearing that displeasure, the service agreed to bring back neighbourhood roles.
An October 2019 launch was announced, with three teams of nine officers — five constables, a community police officer, a school resource officer, a traffic officer and a sergeant to oversee them all.
The neighbourhood response teams have been up and running for just days now, having launched on Monday. The work, in large part right now, is building those relationships and letting the community know that cops walking the beat are back.
The first few days on the job have been full of back-to-basics policing.
Officers began going into businesses, talking to residents in the area, introducing themselves.
“It’s community policing at its most basic, just being out there and being able to interact with people,” Stangle says.
The biggest community complaint when police changed the model was that although the force gambled on front-line officers somehow having the time to do neighbourhood-level, proactive policing, those officers were just never free from the queue of emergency 911 calls that keeps patrol cops busy night after night. So the neighbourhood officers went away, but the work didn’t and communities were left trying to get a laundry list of needs met by a smaller pool of officers with no boots on the ground.
Sgt. Andrew Pidcock oversees the community police officers in central division, of which Vanier is a part. Each neighbourhood response team has a community police officer assigned to it. Those officers have remained a point of contact for the communities, but without a team of officers to deploy the role has been challenging.
Police are already looking to solve issues.
A store owner on Beechwood Avenue reported a break-in. Neighbourhood response team officers were on site while people who specialize in crime prevention through environmental design surveyed the property, looking to answer questions like whether adding some additional exterior lighting could help deter break-ins.
The team has also received a list of problem addresses in the area. Officers went to one of the apartments, the subject of neighbour complaints, and found that the Indigenous woman who lives there is behind in her rent. They’ve already spoken to workers at the Wabano Centre to see what can be done to help her get back on track.
Part of the role of NRT officers is collaborating with other agencies and getting out of the cycle in which the community expects police to take care of everything.
“We can go back there 100 times and it won’t fix it,” Stangle says. But if there’s work done to help people access the support of other agencies, they might be able to hit at the root of social disorder issues.
“So instead of a Band-Aid we can find a more permanent solution,” Pidcock says.
While residents and business owners might be happy to see the officers back, part of the challenge now will be to manage expectations, Stangle says. Each team is still short two constables, who will start work in January. The teams are starting small both in number and scope — with only three promised neighbourhoods, and any expansion contingent on future police budgets.
As the officers walk back toward Vanier Parkway, they get stopped by a driver asking for directions.
“When you’re on foot, people will approach you for anything,” Stangle says.
“The car is a barrier,” he says, and taking that barrier away is necessary for good neighbourhood policing.
Pidcock sees a sex trade worker he’s dealt with in the past, standing on the corner of Park Street and Montreal Road. He asks how she is and tells her, “Take care and be careful.” He’s happy to see her at a healthy weight and out on the corner less than before.
Both Stangle and Pidcock were NHOs in west division under the old system. Stangle’s last stint began in 2015 and ended when the service changed its delivery model.
“I was an NHO up until the end,” he says. “I know the history and know the role, as well.”
But for police this isn’t just a “reboot of the old NHO,” he says. The coming months will tell how successful the pilot is. syogaretnam@postmedia.com twitter.com/shaaminiwhy
It’s community policing at its most basic, just being out there and being able to interact with people.