Police stations to close doors
One to close completely, counter service suspended at two others
Edmonton police say the planned shuttering of three community police stations across the city will get officers away from the counter and back on the streets, but some critics worry the closures will do more harm than good.
The front counters at the Beverley and Eastwood community stations are slated to close July 29, effectively ending access for members of the public.
The buildings will remain open, but will be used by officers writing investigation reports or interviewing witnesses, acting deputy chief Tony Harder says.
The southwest Fairway station will close completely the same day, he says.
“Those are the only ones that will be closed, and the thing that drives this, of course, is we have to look at the cost to operate the buildings and the personnel required to keep them open.”
The decision to completely close Fairway, at 23 Fairway Dr., and shutter the front service counters in Eastwood, 11845 81st St., and Beverley, 3339 118th Ave., was made after police reviewed their numbers and found these were the least busy of the city’s 14 stations.
About 1,600 police reports were filed at Fairway in 2012, or roughly four-and-a-half reports a day.
“It was low compared to many others,” Harder says. “The Calder station, for example, is very, very busy.”
The stations are open seven days a week and require a minimum of two officers, usually with a third officer assigned for relief.
“It’s quite a few people when you start adding up these three stations.”
The closures were timed to coincide with the introduction of the new online crime reporting tool launched in mid-May.
More than 500 reports for non-emergency issues such as vehicle theft and property crimes have been made since the online portal was introduced.
Harder doesn’t think police will see fewer crimes reported in the affected neighbourhoods, because people still have the option of making complaints online or by phone.
“I don’t think it will slow down, because if anything, the online reporting will make it easier for people.”
Rumours about the impending closure of the Beverly station have been floating around for the past month, says George Karbonik, one of the Beverley community league’s civics affairs representatives.
“Face to face is everything. I think that would be a real detriment to the community if they close that counter. This particular community has got a lot more issues than probably a lot more communities do,” says Karbonik, adding the permanent police presence is reassuring.
But for Norm Aldi, president of the Eastwood community league, the neighbourhood station closure will have minimal impact.
“That place has been underutilized in the 10 years I’ve been around. All they do is take complaints. Big deal,” says Aldi, who recently discovered empty beer cans, drug paraphernalia, and trash left at the doors of the community league building. “I’d rather see those cops on the street. That’s where we need them, not sitting behind a counter.”
Community police stations were introduced in the early 1990s in 12 city neighbourhoods that had the highest demand for police service.
“[T]hrough increased community contact, police would be better crime solvers because information to solve crimes most often comes from the community,” says a 1996 police report reviewing the program.
Dean Albrecht, a retired veteran of the police department who edited that report, says personal interaction is important for crime prevention.
“That was one of the key outcomes of the switch to a community policing model, was to get away from reaction and into prevention. But unless you really know where the levers are, where you can get to an incident before it becomes a crime or before a small crime becomes a bigger crime, you can’t prevent anything, you just react to it.” The idea was to give the public better access to report non-emergency crimes or have their concerns addressed, says Chris Braiden, a former Edmonton police superintendent integral in establishing the stations.
“Sometimes people need, especially if they don’t have many friends or aren’t terribly familiar with the system, they need a place to go where they can talk to someone in person.”
That personal touch has meant a lot to Kathy Morrison, who has repeatedly visited the Beverly station in the 45 years she has lived in the area.
“I’ll miss it. It’s great to have the station here because you could go to talk to someone,” says Morrison, the liaison for the Beverley community league. “I prefer it because it’s close. I could go in and they always have time to talk.”
Coun. Tony Caterina was told about the closures about a month ago, after police Chief Rod Knecht let a city community services meeting know the police service was eyeing underused stations.
He says he was surprised to learn the Beverly station wasn’t being used as often as others in the city, and has heard concerns from residents in his ward.
“I’m sure there will be some people who prefer to walk into the station directly, but the manpower, given our circumstances with the funding that was provided to the EPS this particular budget ... they’ve got to make their adjustments,” Caterina says.
“I think what they’ll find is this actually gives the EPS six extra positions to actually put out on the streets, so we’re actually gaining more on the street. It’s not a big number, six, but ... I think they’re justified in doing this and I don’t think communities will see any reduction at all in (police) presence.”