Police see spike in number of encampments

The Brandon Police Service is working with support services to provide a “collective response” to a spike in the number of encampments, the city’s police chief said.

This year the number of encampments in the city rose to 120 from roughly 70 last year, Chief Tyler Bates said during a BPS board meeting on Friday. In 2023, the number of encampments was in the high thirties.

“We have had a record year as far as the number of encampments, and I think that speaks to some of the social challenges we’re experiencing here in terms of homelessness and the housing crisis,” he said.

In the past, Bates said, there was a lot of ambiguity and confusion around the police service’s role in dealing with encampments.

“I think there’s been a lack of clarity with respect to our membership knowing what exactly it is we’re enforcing. Why are we evicting people from their homes, you know?” Bates said.

He said there are four different situations that police deal with on a regular basis — encampments on private land, city land, sidewalks and roadways, and parks. Bates said each situation has a different enforcement authority, and he wanted to make sure that officers and people in encampments understand what bylaw the individual is breaching.

He said BPS has since clarified that and is now working with the city’s housing and wellness department to provide people being evicted from encampments with proper support.

“There’s lots of background work that’s taking place outside of this whole discussion to try to address some of those gaps in perspective and maximizing various spaces that are already providing supports and services to the people that are in these types of living situations.”

Moving forward, when someone is evicted from an encampment, they will be provided with written documentation of why police enforcement was required.

From there, he said, the city will provide “whatever support they can in terms of accessing a better situation as far as housing is concerned. So, that’s a collective response.”

Brandon Mayor Jeff Fawcett told the Sun that while the city has a lot of great services, many people “just don’t have homes.”

“We’re doing our very best, but we need more housing for our people,” he said, adding that government housing, in particular, is needed.

He said there are also simply not enough shelter beds for people in the city.

“There’s a lot of people that could go into housing if there was housing available of some kind. Obviously, it has to be affordable,” Fawcett said.

Also discussed at the meeting were statistics regarding the number and types of calls BPS has been responding to this year.

Bates said BPS has seen a 10 per cent increase in persons-related calls for service, which include a 16 per cent increase in weapons-related calls and an 18 per cent decrease in property-related calls, which he described as a “significant decline.”

He said there has been a 33 per cent decrease in break-and-enter calls for service compared to the same time last year.

According to the Police Reporting and Occurrence System, 35 drug trafficking-related, and 35 drug possession-related charges were laid in the first five months of the year — down 50 per cent and 27 per cent, respectively, from the same period last year.

“I’m not sure what the specific reason for those reductions are. Certainly, the presence of dangerous drugs on our streets is still very much a reality,” Bates said.

As for BPS’s budget, Bates said he is projecting a surplus of $655,000 for 2025, with $654,000 representing a surplus in operating costs. He said the main driver is related to staffing vacancies and movement.

However, he said BPS is down to five hard vacancies and 15 soft vacancies — meaning that some people are still in training and don’t have their boots on the ground yet.

» sanderson@brandonsun.com