Another partnership has been launched to address safety and security issues affecting Edmonton’s downtown core.
The Edmonton Downtown Business Association (DBA) officially launched Night Patrol Thursday, though the DBA said teams had been patrolling since January. The pilot is being funded by the City of Edmonton’s Downtown Vibrancy Fund, the DBA said.
Each team is made up of a security guard from Backwoods Security — a company owned by Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation — and a peer support worker from Hiregood.
Hiregood is run by Boyle Street Community Services (BSCS) and is a social enterprise that employs people who are experiencing homelessness or poverty and may have a hard time getting a job, according to BSCS.
Jodi Phelan, general manager of Hiregood, said about 80 per cent of the staff have experienced living on the streets.
“They’re the real experts out there and they can relate,” said Phelan.
“Our staff are so well known in the inner city that a lot of the vulnerable population really respond to our staff.
“If they see our shirts, they know that we’re trusted, they can trust us.”
The security workers from an Indigenous-led firm can also have a special connection with people living on the streets, according to the business development manager for Backwoods Security.
“We have a familiarity with what goes on downtown. We worked with a lot of the homeless shelters during COVID, for example, and because there’s a large population of Indigenous peoples that are unfortunately homeless, they can identify with us a little bit better,” said Jean-Marc Figeat.
According to Homeward Trust, 57 per cent of homeless people in Edmonton are Indigenous, despite only making up about six per cent of the city’s population.
Every day from 12:30 to 8:30 a.m., two teams patrol the streets of downtown Edmonton, working to prevent break-ins and vandalism, DBA said.
Puneeta McBryan, executive director of the DBA, said she’s heard from business owners, property managers, workers, visitors and residents that overnight crime is taking a major toll.
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“The nighttime economy is seen as an important part of downtown. There’s staff that are leaving their shifts at midnight, 1 a.m., 2 a.m. and they need to feel safe going to their car as well,” said McBryan.
McBryan said this sort of crime-prevention program is not part of the DBA’s mandate, but that “exceptional times call for exceptional measures.”
“We’re well aware that law enforcement resources are insufficient,” she said. “We just don’t have the police resources allocated to downtown that can be there all day and all night the way that we need.”
The teams also work to connect vulnerable people to appropriate resources and de-escalate potentially dangerous situations, calling law enforcement when appropriate, DBA said.
Phelan called it a beautiful partnership.
“As we’re doing this as well, then our community here in the inner city is getting used to security as maybe not a negative thing,” she said.
“They’re here to help. It’s more of a positive experience for everybody that’s involved.”
So far, the teams have intervened in weapons-related incidents, fires in dumpsters and even eyesores like overflowing garbage cans, said Figeat.
This is far from the first partnership between a social agency and a form of enforcement that targets Edmonton’s core. The Community Outreach Transit Team (COTT) is a city-run project where a transit peace officer is paired with an outreach worker from Bent Arrow Traditional Healing Society.
The Human-Centred Engagement and Liaison Partnership (HELP) Unit with the Edmonton Police Service (EPS) is made up of a police officer and a social worker, in an effort to break the cycle of arrest, remand and release that many vulnerable people fall into, EPS said.
The Police and Crisis Response Team (PACT) is an initiative from EPS where mental health therapists patrol with police officers to refer people with mental health concerns.
Shawn Kaminski, owner of Lui-Chi’s Coffee and Espresso, said he likes to see organizations keep trying new programs.
“You’ve got to try some things, see what works, see what doesn’t work, and adopt the good things and throw away the bad things and and keep moving forward,” said Kaminski.
Kaminski often starts his day around 4:30 a.m. and says there isn’t always a lot of people around
“Having (the Night Patrol) out and about and at least being seen, they can least help with the situation because it’s not always a bad situation — maybe somebody is in distress, they need help with addiction, they need help with their mental status that night,” he said.
Backwoods runs a similar program in Calgary and Figeat said the firm receives calls daily from other companies to set up similar partnerships.
“I hate to say it’s a growing industry, but we’re getting more and more calls each day from from other groups and companies that realize that this is becoming rampant,” said Figeat.
“I’m hoping that this this job in particular will weed itself out, but I think we’ll be busy for a few years to come.”
McBryan said the program is expensive — costing $400,000 to run each day for one year — and she hopes that the program can be wound down in a year or two.
“My hope is that the situation improves and we don’t have to do this anymore because that’s the other key thing is we’re not solving anything with this program … we’re trying to manage a situation that’s really very well outside of our mandate and our control,” she said.
“We’re hopeful that between social supports and law enforcement and the justice system and all the different powers that be get a handle on our safety situation downtown and that we won’t have to do this anymore.”
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