Saint John police to launch quick response team

With crime rates feeling like they are at an all time high in Saint John, the city’s police force is hoping a new “quick response team” will help address some of the issues.

The team, set to be made up of four officers, will focus their efforts on the uptown and Waterloo village areas of the city. The goal of the team is to not only deter and cut down crime rates, but also to work and build relationships with the city’s homeless population.

“We want to make sure we have visibility, we want to make sure we have connectivity, and we want to have familiarity,” says Saint John Police Force Chief Robert Bruce. “The officers will be familiar with the area, they'll be familiar with social services, social service will be familiar with them, as well as the clients and the uptown business people will be familiar with the officers.”

Chief Bruce says the move is a change to a more “proactive” policing approach to deter crime and other incidents before they occur.

The Chief also notes he has spoken with single mothers, and the city’s elderly population who are more fearful to go out on the streets because they are not use to this much crime related activity.

“You've got open air drug use, you've got people that are defecating in the streets and they’re nervous,” says Chief Bruce. “Like our officers are not nervous around people with mental health issues, but you can imagine the average citizen is going to be nervous around that.”

One of the benefits this new team will give the force is the ability for these four officers to full engage with incidents uptown and in Waterloo village. They will be able to spend extra time with a criminal or client, and work alongside social services and uptown businesses in greater detail to hopefully cut the crime rates significantly.

Susie Hines, owner of Hats on the Square uptown, says she has dealt with her fair share of petty theft over her four years on Germain Street. She says it has only gotten worse recently, and is excited for the quick response team to be activated.

“I'm very excited as I love seeing their presence,” Hines says. “They pop into the store which is really nice to see. It doesn't make the customers feel uneasy, if anything, it makes them feel quite comfortable.”

Derrick May, better known to many in Saint John as the Soapbox Preacher, lives in Waterloo Village by the container shelters managed by Fresh Start. He says both the crime and poverty rates are high in the area and residents are feeling the effects of the homeless population in the area.

He says the waterloo village community is supporting and showing the unhoused population love and compassion, and is hopeful the quick response team will give residents an added sense of ease.

“We've been waiting for something,” says May. “We've been waiting for this. I don't necessarily think we need more policing, but we definitely need more help. If this helps people get off the street and helps mental health, I think it's a good thing.”

Saint John City Councillor and Police Commissioner Greg Norton believes residents are excited to see this new team rolled out.

He says petty theft is up by at least 25 per cent this year, and expects that number to drop once the patrols begin. He also says this team will allow other police officers to answer calls in other ends of the city.

“Calls for service go down in those areas,” says Norton. “Because some of our community members, rather than calling the communications center for a request for service, will wait for that community police officer to come back, discuss it with them so it will help free up some of our valuable personnel.”

While the new team has been approved by the Board of Police Commissioners, the team won’t be rolled out until it has been approved by Saint John City Council. The cost of the team is estimated to be $460,000.

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