People in Victoria may have noticed more police officers on foot instead of patrolling in their cruisers this summer and several groups hope to see that become the norm as programs near their end.
Project Downtown Connect saw officers walking around to provide a visible presence in the city centre, along with interacting with businesses to hear their concerns. While businesses, councillors and experts see benefits from the increased prevalence of police on foot, it’s not an everyday occurrence.
“We don’t currently have dedicated downtown ‘foot patrols’ but we do certain special projects from time to time that include downtown foot patrols, engaging with the public and businesses,” a VicPD spokesperson said at the onset of the project.
Officers will do proactive patrols from time to time when call volumes allow, but those are not scheduled, the spokesperson added. The department is also running foot patrols up to four days a week in July and August thanks to $30,000 in special funding from the city. Those are done through officers taking overtime shifts and not through a reworking of other operations.
Victoria also funds a project that sees officers patrolling the downtown entertainment district on foot on weekend nights.
After policing was traditionally done on foot, it’s only been decades since officers largely switched to patrolling in vehicles, said Irwin Cohen, director of the Centre for Public Safety and Criminal Justice Research. Pop culture has helped advance the idea that crime happens in front of officers driving around, but Cohen said that’s rare and, nowadays, information-equipped forces do intelligence-led mobile patrols.
“Crime is to some extent pretty predictable and police have a lot of data, so you can do a lot of good trend analysis to have a pretty good sense of when, where and by whom is crime most likely to happen,” the University of the Fraser Valley researcher said.
Mobile patrolling can be effective, but it’s made police become isolated from the public, Cohen said. With departments relying on the public’s information, he said a strong community-police relationship is the most important aspect, not just for effective enforcement, but for overall public safety.
Data-informed foot patrols can help create that bridge when they’re done by officers capable of forging connections with diverse groups, Cohen said.
“Policing is theoretically, or ideally, not something that is done to people but is part of an enterprise that the community participates in – and the police are of the people, not policing the people,” he said, noting it’s important for people to know who officers are and vice-versa.
In a June address to council, VicPD Chief Del Manak said they stretched Project Downtown Connect funds to go beyond the planned six weeks. Connecting with businesses about retail theft, providing storekeepers with crime prevention tips and having more visible officers proved extremely positive, the Chief added.
“I can tell you that the early return on investment on this has been phenomenal,” he said of the project, which ended on June 30. He added extending the project’s timeline was in response to what the community and council were asking for.
Manak said he wants VicPD to be focused on relationship-building and proactive policing. The force is also in the midst of a two-year pilot where VicPD will be restructuring operations to include more proactive foot patrols when possible, along with preventative and hotspot policing.
The Downtown Victoria Business Association (DVBA) has been super supportive of more foot patrols from bylaw and police officers. The proactive measures can add to a sense of safety, but have also allowed businesses to meet and thank officers instead of just seeing police when something negative has happened, the DVBA’s CEO said.
“We certainly are very supportive of these becoming more permanent fixtures and we think it’s a valuable service,” said Jeff Bray.
While it’s hard to measure the impact on crime in and around stores, Bray said, the increased officer visibility made the association’s members feel better as they thought it could help deter incidents or deal with issues before they escalate. He said it seems like there have been fewer broken windows or doors than in recent summers, but also pointed out how there tends to be less bad behaviour when downtown is busier.
“I think things have improved and certainly having both bylaw and police out on the streets proactively is a helpful thing,” Bray said.
Until the province comes to the table with more measures tackling mental health and repeat offenders, issues like retail theft are likely to continue as people living with multiple challenges come downtown to access services or generate money, Bray said.
However, he likes to remind people that alone doesn’t define downtown.
“We have thousands of people that come into downtown every day and have great experiences,” he said. “If people haven’t been downtown for a while and all they hear is the narrative, I’d urge people to come down on a Saturday afternoon and have a look for themselves.”
Manak was asked by a councillor if it’d be possible to regularize the pilot and get more foot patrols downtown by taking officers out of a cruiser in a lower-crime part of the city.
“I’d love to do that, I don’t have the resources to do it,” the chief responded, noting the department’s efforts to bolster its staff.
VicPD’s $4.3-million budget increase in 2023 includes funding for two new front-line officers, but the chief has said they’re still trying to fill vacancies as officers are on leave due to physical or psychological illnesses, while the area’s high cost of living makes recruiting tough.
Community policing and foot patrols are usually the first things dropped by staffing-strained departments, Cohen said. But he said those spots can be filled by non-sworn members like volunteers, ambassadors or young people who are interested in public safety. That offers a way for the force to have a presence in the community and interact with the public, while police can still be called if something goes awry.
VicPD runs a Crime Watch Team that includes some patrols by volunteers in a marked car, on foot or by bike in the warmer months. Those volunteers can’t respond to crime, but they answer questions and their presence helps raise awareness of what’s happening in the areas they visit, VicPD said.
Perception of safety is another factor Cohen said must be considered. More police in a neighbourhood may make one person feel safer, but someone with a different worldview or lived experience may wonder what garners such a heavy response.
“If I flood your neighbourhood with 15 police cars, some of you will feel good but some will think ‘I need to move because what the hell is going on here that there needs to be this kind of police presence,’” Cohen said.
That’s why he said transparency from police is key so the public knows exactly what they’re doing in a certain area and why. That’s especially important as BIPOC or other marginalized groups may have different experiences with police, and therefore leaders of those communities should be included in decision-making on police strategy, Cohen said.
The researcher stressed foot patrols should focus on areas where they can have an impact, connect with people and be informed by data.
“There are certain places where you absolutely should be doing foot patrol with these kinds of caveats in place, and there are probably locations where foot patrols are a complete waste of your time and resources.”
READ: Victoria keeps downtown patrol program, police board now says some requests can wait