EDMONTON – Those in the hospitality industry are pushing the Edmonton Police Service (EPS) to create a new enforcement team – one which would focus on bar patron safety.
Industry members met with police on Tuesday to continue discussions that began last September.
The proposed violence crime suppression team would be modelled after similar ones in cities like Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto.
In Edmonton, the team would focus on areas outside of the large hospitality zones like Jasper Avenue and Whyte Avenue, which the industry feels are already being policed well.
“We’re now dealing with people that are outside of that,” said DeCock.
“They know we have a comprehensive, robust law enforcement program on the Avenue, but perhaps not in the depth of Terwillegar, or the depth of some of our suburbs, so they choose to gather there sometimes,” added Insp. Gary Godziuk with the EPS.
DeCock would like to see the team in action this year, or at least next year.
It’s an initiative police support, according to Godziuk, but the details still need to be ironed out.
Since the police budget is already set for this year, in order for the team to come to fruition in 2014, resources would have to be reallocated from other areas of the service.
With files from Quinn Ohler, Global News
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