Brandon police launching downtown strategy

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This article was published 12/06/2021 (1725 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Brandon Police Service is revamping its downtown policing strategy after the pandemic made it “difficult” in 2020.

Speaking at the Brandon Police Board virtual meeting on Friday, Chief Wayne Balcaen said working on the downtown strategy last year was “very difficult” because of COVID-19 and the associated restrictions.

“Without the ability to initiate it, we had some hot spots and some pressure points that we were unable to meet with our regular patrols and our regular strategy because of our commitment at that time to guarding services (at BPS headquarters) and the fact that COVID had just started,” he said.

The BPS reevaluated the strategy this year, Balcaen said. It formally started on May 3 and is set to run until the end of September.

The strategy includes foot patrols downtown, officers patrolling on bicycles and regular patrols in police cruisers.

Downtown continues to be a busy area for Brandon police, Balcaen said. Of the 3,170 calls for service police responded to in May, 1,089 of them — 34 per cent — were downtown.

Regardless of the downtown strategy, Balcaen said BPS always has a significant presence in the neighbourhood.

“As this initiative moves forward there will be continued meetings and look at other potential projects and areas we can concentrate on to help with the safety and security of this area of our city,” he said.

Police are also trying to get people to register their bicycles through the Garage 529 app, a service that helps police reunite a bike with its owner if stolen.

“Bike theft is also happening in this area and some of the past intelligence shows this has been used as a commodity of trade for drugs or other illegal activities,” Balcaen said.

The police chief also gave an update on how COVID-19 has affected the police service. From April 1, 2020 until March 31, 2021, 56 per cent of staff have missed at least one day due to testing positive or close contact with someone who had the virus.

So far, officers have responded to 1,269 complaints related to public health orders, Balcaen said. BPS is also responsible for checking that international travellers are self-isolating.

Out of those complaints, 28 have resulted in charges.

Coun. Shawn Berry (Linden Lanes) asked Balcaen how much of a priority enforcing public health orders is for Brandon police officers. Balcaen said the service is “fully engaged” with the health orders, but it becomes a difficult balance between enforcing them and regular police work. Police are also only one of the groups with the authority to levy fines, which include provincial health inspectors.

While BPS has the authority to enforce the restrictions, it becomes an issue of capacity for officers.

“It’s a difficult balance at times, making sure we attend to calls for service as well as these calls that have increased our capacity,” he said.

“That’s recognized by the province and Manitoba Justice, that the capacity can sometimes be reached.”

The Brandon Police Board is next scheduled to meet in early October.

» dmay@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @DrewMay_