The area around Third and George downtown has grown into a crime hotspot, according to Prince George RCMP Supt. Warren Brown.
The area within 200 metres of the corner drew 1,731 calls last year, up 22-per-cent or 312 calls from the total seen in 2011, Brown said during a presentation to city council on Monday night.
In terms of offences, the biggest jumps were seen in disturbances, up 133 calls, public drunkenness, up 60 call, and drug-related crimes, up 43 calls. Calls related to suspicious persons, vehicles and incidents were also up by 21 calls as was property crime - or mischief under $5,000 - up by 13.
The only decrease was in violent crime, which has declined by 40 calls.
Brown pinned the problem down to addiction and mental health issues and noted it's a hub for health services and social housing catering to people with those troubles. Ironically, Third and George is where the Prince George courthouse is located.
Brown suggested much of the jump is also due to increased police patrols in the area but also said that given the high number of complaints from businesses in the area, it's a situation the RCMP can't ignore.
"What we're seeing by day is a number of vulnerable people coming there for resources, many of whom live in the social housing in the area and some of whom have no housing," Brown said.
"It's a place to socialize and recreate, we understand that. However, we also see a very high amount of drug use in that area.
"A lot of needles are being found in the area, we're getting a lot of complaints from not only pedestrians [and] people who work and use the courthouse but also clients of the courthouse and of course a lot of businesses."
The numbers drew concern from Coun. Brian Skakun who claimed the area has become as bad as East Hastings Street in Vancouver and raised the idea of installing public surveillance cameras.
Despite privacy laws, Brown said there are legal ways to achieve that goal, "through businesses and other means" but suggested there are other options to consider first such as bringing a First Nations court to the city, a possibility he had also raised with city council in February.
"I would ask that the community provide some patience and that's a difficult and a hard thing for me to say considering that a lot of business owners are fed up and frustrated, I've heard that loud and clear," Brown said. "But I say we have some very good programs in place, or certainly at the initiation [stage]."
Getting some momentum behind a support program to assist chronic offenders to change their ways will help "chip away at this," Brown added. He also noted some businesses have put gates across their doors.
"I don't disagree that cameras wouldn't help," Brown said. "I think they would in identifying [suspects] when a crime has been committed. It can have a deterrence but I think we have a lot of good collaboration and programs under way that, given an opportunity, will see a difference."
The city has installed cameras around its facilities, Skakun noted.
"Is it controversial? You bet but I think at some point it would be nice to get the community's feedback on what they think about these things," Skakun said. "Do the privacy rights outweigh the criminals' and the rest?"
Coun. Murry Krause said he was glad Brown acknowledge many of the people in question need supports. "We need to find better ways of dealing with them rather than through police action and through the courts," Krause added.
Asked by Krause if he had statistics for other city's downtowns, Brown said he probably could track some down but maintained downtown Prince George is unique. He said it's home to "a lot of social service, healthcare-type resources hubbed in a very, very close proximity."
Moreover, he said many of those services are not available in outlying communities.
"When those clients come to our community, they're without their support systems that some of these others communities still have. So a lot of the challenges we have are unique to Prince George," Brown said.
Krause agreed.
"We've got some very small communities all around us that are never going to have some of the services that we have in Prince George, and so indivduals with mental health and addictions and other issues will gravitate towards our community," Krause said. "I guess that's what comes from being a northern capital."
