Final tab for city police patrols of tent city over the summer was $86K

It cost the city a bit more than $86,000 to have two officers patrol tent city this summer, according to a new financial report from Peterborough Police.

The report was released at Tuesday night’s Peterborough Police Services Board meeting. It states that the cost for the patrol was $86,376.50.

Deputy Chief Tim Farquharson explained that was to have two dedicated officers patrolling tent city 20 hours a day for five weeks. There were officers there until 4 a.m. daily, he said.

Chief Scott Gilbert said the patrols included the tent encampments at Victoria Park, city hall and St. John’s Anglican Church.

But the $86,000 didn’t cover any costs for police investigations that arose from the homeless encampments, Gilbert said.

There was a double stabbing near the park on Aug. 1, for example. The city announced the following day that the city was planning to step up police patrol to tent city, although no cost was ever mentioned at the time.

Insp. John Lyons said Tuesday the money covered patrols for five weeks ending Sept. 5.

Although the main homeless encampment in Victoria Park was dismantled Aug. 27, Lyons said the city wanted to have an extra week of patrol in case homeless people were to move back into the park.

Tent city was the term used to

describe the homeless encampments that were set up in Peterborough County-owned Victoria Park, St. John’s Anglican Church and at city hall this summer after the Warming Room shelter closed July 1.

Although Victoria Park is owned by Peterborough County, the city had authority to enforce a bylaw to curb camping there (the city adopted a similar bylaw in the summer for its parks too).

Faced with eviction orders on Aug. 27, the homeless in Victoria Park moved out — many of them up the street to the property at Emmanuel Church, where they were permitted by clergy to stay until the end of September.

It wasn’t clear then when those homeless people would go, as they were dismantling their tents; many said they would be couch surfing.

Mayor Diane Therrien, who is on the police board, said she on Tuesday she met in the summer with police and city CAO Sandra Clancy and it was decided that the city would fund the extra patrols.

The matter didn’t go to city council, Therrien said, because council wasn’t sitting; councillors were on summer break, and it was within the CAO’s authority to approve the expense of the stepped-up police service.

The exact cost was unclear at the time it was approved, Therrien said.

“We had a rough estimate — we knew it would be expensive,” she said in an interview following the police board meeting.

But officers do dangerous work, she added, and needed to be compensated properly to watch over the encampments.

Meanwhile Gilbert pointed out in an interview that the dismantling of Victoria Park happened in a peaceful manner with no trespassing charges.