Downtown safety under scrutiny

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This article was published 11/03/2025 (383 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Brandon Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation is one of more than a dozen organizations that will be meeting with the city’s police chief this week to discuss a downtown public safety strategy, BNRC executive director Rushana Newman told the Sun.

“We need to come up with a strategy. It’s needed so that people will feel safe, because if they do, it will boost foot traffic. Businesses are complaining, and the Brandon Downtown BIZ is trying to promote downtown in such a way that it’s never been promoted before,” Newman said.

Brandon Police Service Chief Tyler Bates — who’s been on the job since last October — told the Sun the meeting has been “months in the making.”

Since his start date almost five months ago, Bates said he has been surveying the landscape and getting an understanding of what the city’s realities are regarding “crime trends and public safety issues.”

“The downtown core is paramount in terms of what we need to achieve within the City of Brandon,” Bates said.

“If the downtown area is safe for business and safe for our citizens, that is something that is going to contribute to overall community wellness. So, I am meeting with a multiplicity of stakeholders and partners that work in the downtown core.”

Bates said he wants to make sure that Brandon Police Service and all agencies are aligned in their efforts.

“I’m really excited about hearing what people have to say about what contributions they can make and what they need to see from us as Brandon Police Service members,” he said.

“I think there’s a lot of great work happening in a lot of domains. Let’s all come to the table and agree on what we’re trying to accomplish.”

Four hours have been set aside for Thursday’s meeting, Bates added, and it is not open to the public. It is only for the partner agencies that are providing services to the vulnerable population downtown.

Some of the other organizations that will be included along with BNRC are Westman Immigrant Services, the Safe and Warm Shelter, Brandon Friendship Centre and Prairie Mountain Health. Shannon Saltarelli, the City of Brandon’s community housing and wellness co-ordinator, will also attend.

Saltarelli said she understands that some citizens have concerns about “downtown disarray,” and that’s why she is looking forward to getting together with like-minded people who are invested in coming up with solutions.

“You need to have people on the front lines who are going to have suggestions and solutions, which are coming from the clients that they serve, the people who are deeply impacted by safety,” Saltarelli said.

“Because we have to remember when we talk about safety downtown, our vulnerable population are targeted by issues of safety themselves. And to be very clear, I do not feel unsafe downtown, but I have more concern about people within the vulnerable population that prey upon other people within the vulnerable population,” she said.

More than a third of the calls that Brandon police officers respond to are in the downtown core, Bates told the Sun, including an assault that happened in broad daylight on Rosser Avenue on March 1.

A 30-year-old woman was beaten up and robbed by four teenagers outside The Town Centre, as the Sun previously reported. Two 14-year-old females, a 17-year-old female and a 15-year-old male were arrested and charged with robbery with violence.

On Jan. 16, a 67-year-old man was hit in the face with a baseball bat on the corner of Rosser Avenue and Seventh Street just before 1 p.m. The alleged attacker was charged with assault with a weapon.

In February, Coun. Bruce Luebke (Ward 6) told the Sun that approximately $60,000 had been budgeted to pay for security officers at the Western Manitoba Regional Library, which is on the corner where the assault took place.

During the same month, Brandon councillors voted to support a motion from Leubke to write a letter to the federal and provincial governments calling for bail reform.

Luebke cited an increasing crime rate in Brandon that has jeopardized public safety, he said, because of federal policies that do not appropriately hold offenders accountable.

The volume of work that needs to be done in the downtown area is “overwhelming,” Bates said, adding that he understands that Brandonites want to know that “all hands are on deck” when it comes to making sure downtown is safe, welcoming and vibrant.

“We have a continuous presence downtown with our cadet corps, and that’s by intentional design. They are our eyes and our ears, and a lot of times, alert us to things that allow us to de-escalate situations and intervene as early and as efficiently as possible,” said Bates.

“So, we’re in the process of looking to increase that police visibility and that cadet presence,” he said.

Besides more police boots on the ground, effort needs to be placed on the vulnerable population whose safety is impacted, said Saltarelli.

“We need to do a better job of not making decisions for people without them. You can’t do things for community without community,” she said. “So, I don’t know what the solutions are, but I’m looking forward to hearing what other people have to say.

“I want the community to tell me, what do you need for housing? What do you need for wellness programs? How can we support that?”

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