Police chief emphasizes importance of reporting suspicious activity

THUNDER BAY — Pointed questions about police response time and rising violence eroding the safety of neighbourhoods were brought to the attention of the city’s police chief on Thursday.

Chat with the Chief took place at the 55 Plus Centre with about 40 people in attendance. Operational support Insp. Jason Rybak was also present to answer questions about community outreach by the Thunder Bay Police Service alongside Chief Darcy Fleury.

While some attendees applauded the police for a greater presence in areas of the city where drug use in a particular location has been reduced, others said police need to take more action to deter visible violence and drug use in public.

One woman said she no longer feels safe in her neighbourhood and asked what she can do about it.

Fleury said it is important for people who observe specific criminal activity to report as much information to police as possible.

“To get a search warrant is very difficult,” Fleury said.

For example, if a citizen suspects a house is being used for drug-trafficking, the police require clear evidence before they can search it.

He encouraged people to give the police every bit of information possible, all comings and goings or where they’ve seen suspicious people because the more information the police have, that’s what they can build a case on.

Fleury said citizens should also report suspicious activity to their councillors.

“We’ll get a message from a councillor: ‘hey, this is happening in our area’ and we have had some success (in addressing incidents). But we need to know there’s activity to address,” he said.

He also said that while calling the Crime Stoppers line is one tool citizen have, it is more helpful to police if you call the non-emergency number, 807-684-1200, to report an incident.

There was concern in the room regarding encampments and people who loiter in alleys and backyards. Fleury pointed out that the police have no jurisdiction to prevent people from loitering — that, he said, is a bylaw issue — but that police are available to deal with a situation that escalates.

That, said Rybak, is what Project Support is all about.

Project Support grew out of these chats with the Chief to create more visible police presence in the downtown cores.

Fleury said this initiative also aims to get people who are in crisis the help that they need without having to go through the justice system.

Project Support, he said, connects those in need with other agencies in town and they are seeing some success with this program.

When asked how the service prioritizes calls, Fleury said the safety of citizens is always a priority but depending on the nature of a particular call, sometimes officers will have to leave one call for another that may be more serious.

Fleury said that there should always be a response to every single call to police, regardless of the nature of the call, but sometimes the response can take a couple of days.

Overall, Fleury said that the questions from Thursday’s Chat with the Chief “shows that there’s a lot of real interest from the people in this community as to what’s going on with the police, and I think we have to look at that and it does feed what we’re doing.”

He said he will continue to host these events and use the community feedback to move the service forward in alignment with the service’s strategic plan.