Safer Communities

Summerside residents push council for safer communities legislation MIKE CARSON The GuardianSUMMERSIDE — Some city residents have had enough of neighbourhood crime and are urging city council to push for safer communities legislation.Coun. Cory Thomas, chair of the city’s police committee, said he and another councillor have been approached by residents wanting more protection from local crime. One resident presented the councillors with the Nova Scotia Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act asking for similar legislation here.“What this does is it empowers a new provincial police unit which could use civil law to evict people out of their homes that are committing crimes in the neighbourhood that are affecting the living conditions in the neighbourhood,” Thomas said in an interview Monday.Thomas has presented copies of the Nova Scotia act to members of council and to Attorney General Gerard Greenan. The councillor hopes to meet with Greenan in the near future to discuss implementing a similar act on the Island.“It would make the job easier for police in ending these trouble spots that are in P.E.I. communities,” he said.It would be a provincial unit with a director who would go in and investigate freeing up time from police enabling them to concentrate on other areas.“It would help get rid of people that are committing drug-related crimes where people in a neighbourhood are being kept up all hours of the day and night by people going to these homes to purchase drugs,” Thomas said. “It would enable tenants to be evicted fairly easily.”Crimes covered under the jurisdiction of the Nova Scotia Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act include possession, use, consumption sale or exchange of a controlled substance; sale of illegal liquor; illegal gambling; prostitution and child sexual abuse.“As you can imagine, if people lived in such a neighbourhood and they have their families there, they are concerned about their safety,” Thomas said.Thomas said current mechanisms for dealing with properties are cumbersome, slow, expensive and not always successful.“We need to bring timely relief to affected neighbourhoods,” he said, adding he hopes city councillors review the legislation so it can be discussed it at the next police committee meeting. “It’s an extra tool for crime fighting that perhaps we should seriously look at.”Thomas said he is an advocate for crime prevention and supports education programs in the schools and having police have a presence in the schools so students can get to know the officers and feel comfortable with them.“I would also like to see other levels of government invest in crime prevention activities such as Generation XX and the Boys and Girls Club,” the councillor said. “The city, every year, gives substantially (to these clubs) and we see the value in it. It’s crime prevention and keeping kids off the street. It gives them positive activities to be involved in and the city of Summerside recognizes the importance of those activities. We need to invest in prevention.”Increased services do not come without a cost but Thomas said it’s an investment worth making.