Proposal for Burnaby bike patrol wheels into council

A bike patrol of bylaw officers is being proposed for city parks and public area in Burnaby, following the murder of a local teen.

Burnaby City Council will vote on the proposed one-year pilot program at its meeting Monday evening. The recommendation suggests the city hire four city staff members to serve as bylaw officers on the bike patrol.

Coun. Pietro Calendino, who heads the city’s public safety committee, said the idea stemmed from meetings following the death of 13-year-old Marrisa Shen. She was found in Burnaby Central Park in July 2017 hours after her parents reported her missing. Calendino said having additional officers could help avert any criminal actions taking place in parks and public areas.

“Their visual presence… would be there to deter nuisance and illegal activities in parks and anywhere around the city,” Calendino said.

Calendino believes the proposed bike patrol would be beneficial to the Burnaby RCMP because it would free up more officers to take care of other incidents throughout the city.

“To allow the police officers to do policing jobs while the park patrols will simply do surveillance around parks,” Calendino said. “If they detect any illegal activities, they can always contact RCMP to come and intervene.”

If the proposal gets approved, the total estimated cost of the one-year program would be $334,000. The city would allocate just over $76,000 in wages and benefits for each of the new bylaw officers.

The target date for this program to start is expected to be May 19, 2018.