The number of police calls from Nelson downtown business owners is increasing, but the city's police chief says he doesn't have enough officers to adequately address those concerns.
About 35 Nelson businesses people and the chief of the Nelson Police Department all agreed on this at a Nelson and District Chamber of Commerce meeting held on Oct. 29.
"Businesses are finding that a number of people they are dealing with are becoming more aggressive and emboldened in their activities downtown," Chief Donovan Fisher told the Nelson Star following the meeting.
Fisher said the police get 20-30 calls per day about thefts, mischief, disturbance and aggressive behaviour in the city. There have also been three violent incidents recently at downtown businesses when staff were put at risk and in one case attacked.
Meanwhile, the police have only 12 active officers while their funding allows 20. (They are actually funded for 23, but three are senior management employees not actively on patrol).
Chamber executive director Tom Thomson, who chaired the meeting, said it was not a public forum but a chamber business meeting to which they invited the police and the City of Nelson. The chamber has meetings with the police occasionally "to maintain a good relationship," Thomson said, and the recent violent incidents signalled the need for another.
"These were kind of high-profile cases that were a concern to the businesses and a concern to some people in the general public."
Mike Borch, who owns Baker Street Menswear and attended the meeting, told the Nelson Star that while he has not had a violent or aggressive incident in his store, he is familiar with others in the city.
Borch said that while hearing the stories told in the meeting, he was shocked by the prevalence of threatening behaviour.
"It was very distressing, not only for the business and the staff and also the customers in there," he said, adding that at the meeting there was support for, and appreciation of, the police.
"The tone of the meeting was there's lots of concern about the safety issues around town."
Fisher said a group of about six people create a lot of work for his officers.
"We have two people in that group that have accounted for over 100 calls each in the last calendar year," Fisher said, "and over the last three years, two of them combined have resulted in about 500 calls."
He said that even though the provincial government tightened the rules on bail for crimes of violence during the past year, bail conditions for lower-level crimes like mischief and property damage are unchanged and still not adequate as a deterrent.
The justice system's policy in those crimes is to release suspects on bail with conditions unless there is a good reason for holding them.
"We are making the argument that a small group of people are causing an exorbitant amount of work the the police and are causing an exorbitant amount of harm in the community," Fisher said. "I think we have a solid case, and it is frustrating that it does not result in what we think needs to happen."
A person out on bail will eventually go in front of a judge, and if they plead guilty or are found guilty in a trial they will be sentenced. But Fisher said he sees a similar problem with sentencing.
"The severity or length of sentencing does not seem to equate to the level of negative impact chronic offenders have on the community."
Fisher said business people at the meeting seemed to understand the issues the department is facing, including under-staffing.
He has three officers in training and therefore not on the street, and some who are off work because of illness and other reasons. There is one vacant position for which the department is advertising, preferably for an experienced officer.
"We continue to run on not the ideal staffing levels and we are dealing with some pretty violent people these days and ... we can't afford to have anybody get hurt, and there is a likelihood of that happening with some of these incidents in the past while."
Borch said the tension about criminal activity around businesses in Nelson adds to other difficulties for small businesses, which are still recovering from the pandemic.
He said the cost of running a business has gone up and tourism is slightly down, but "we're doing everything we can to make downtown inviting, well lit, and safe, because we've got a phenomenal strip of stores here. We hear that all the time from people."
