(rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

better together

Dozens attend first public meeting on community safety

Nov 4, 2019 | 5:12 PM

Dozens of Red Deerians took another step on Monday towards becoming more in sync with city hall when it comes to community safety.

The City of Red Deer held its first of six public meetings designed to bring citizens together to voice their thoughts and opinions on issues like crime. More than 50 people attended Monday’s meeting at the Northside Community Centre YMCA.

“I would say (community safety) has changed. There’s a bigger acceptance of homelessness; people just accept it as being part of our society,” said Melvin Heinrichs, who’s lived in Red Deer for 20 years. “There’s a lot more drug use, we’ve accepted the fact there are a lot of people using needles haphazardly and discarding them anywhere and everywhere. It wasn’t that way 20 years ago.”

Heinrichs believes law enforcement is frustrated at finding criminals they arrest back on the street mere hours later. He says Red Deer also desperately needs more facilities for people who use drugs, and for the homeless to get back on their feet.

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“This takes money. It takes a lot of work, and there are a lot of differences of opinion here,” he added.

Rick Fabian, a former RCMP officer, has been lived in Red Deer since 1991. He says government needs to begin allocating more money towards community safety initiatives.

“The last budget came out and they’re dropping hundreds of teaching positions. Teachers are the first line of defense in keepings kids in school, engaged, and from becoming homeless, getting on drugs and all the rest of it,” he said. “Law enforcement is at the end of the road, not the beginning. And we have to start addressing mental health at all levels, and ensure there’s no stigma attached to it.”

As for what The City or local agencies could do, he believes a hard look at the previously determined targets is in order.

“Safe injection sites (supervised consumption); I don’t know as much about that as I should, but obviously the people who set it up had a goal in mind. Somebody has to sit down and ask ‘Are we getting there? Are we actually solving a problem or are we adding to it? Or are we breaking even, which is no good.'”

Fabian said that’s only one of many examples, adding that people need to get involved and be aware of what’s going on in their neighbourhood.

Long-time Red Deer Joan Swanson says the behaviour she’s seen in public during her time here has gone downhill.

“We don’t feel safe sometimes, and sometimes it’s just not appropriate to be in a public place doing the things that people do. Overall, as a community, we can raise our expectations of what’s a healthy behaviour for our whole community,” she said. “We don’t have to tolerate horrible behaviours in our society … we need to have some resources to curb those behaviours.

Swanson explained that as a citizen, she doesn’t want to give criminals the feeling that they can take over certain areas.

“I think there’s an awful lot of good in Red Deer; way more good than there is bad. It’s just that the bad hits the news,” Swanson said. “There are really good, caring community members … and I think our city council — for even having a thing like this — I say yay. They’re listening to the community.”

Upcoming community safety meetings are scheduled as follows:

Nov. 5 – Red Deer College – Four Centres Building – 10 a.m.
Nov. 6 – Lindsay Thurber High School cafeteria – 6 p.m.
Nov. 7 – Eastview Middle School gymnasium – 6 p.m.
Nov. 13 – St. Francis of Assisi Middle School gymnasium – 6 p.m.
Nov. 15 – Radisson Hotel on 67 Street – 10 a.m.

All meetings are expected to last about two hours. People interested in attending are encouraged to pre-register at RedDeer.ca/bettertogether or by calling 403-342-8111.