Expect more police presence in downtown Yellowknife this summer: RCMP
Un texte de Devon Tredinnick
Yellowknife residents can expect to see more police officers patrolling the city’s downtown core this summer.
RCMP Insp. Byron Donovan said the summer months tend to come with more calls in the downtown core, many of which are for public drinking and intoxication. He said one goal of having more presence is to help cut those calls down.
“Having a presence alone, oftentimes will allow people to make a second choice,” he said. “‘I’m not going to consume alcohol,’ and ‘I’m not gonna get into a fight in public.’ ‘I’m not going to be intoxicated in public. I think increasing our presence will reduce that here. I think you’ll see that.”
RCMP officers might also ask people to dump their bottles if they are drinking in public, or hand out tickets for open alcohol consumption, Donovan said.
But he also said the RCMP’s goal isn’t to overstep.
“We’re not going to police ourselves out of homelessness,” he said. “We’re not going to police ourselves out of addictions.”
Diep Duong works downtown and says she has no trouble being there during the day. But she’s got her limits.
“I usually don’t walk downtown after 5:00 p.m. and on weekends,” said Duong. “I don’t think it’s very safe. It hasn’t been safe for a number of years.”
Duong says she’s seen people get aggressive — like throwing chairs at restaurant workers. It’s enough to make her avoid downtown when she’s not working.
And it’s why she thinks more police presence makes for a “great idea.”
“We’re trying to revitalize downtown, we’re trying to make it more welcoming,” she said. “If people feel like it’s safe to go downtown, then they’ll go downtown. And if there’s more police presence walking around, it invites more people and they’ll feel safer.”
Mental health, rehabilitation services needed: resident
Not all residents feel the same. Andrea Cleland lives and works downtown and doesn’t think more police presence will help.
“I think more mental health support, more rehab facilities, more funding going into public housing would be better,” she said.
Cleland says those types of services would go further in improving public safety and pointed to the Wellness and Recovery Centre currently under construction downtown as an example.
“I don’t see what the RCMP presence is going to do for people that are out on the street,” she said.
The Wellness and Recovery Centre in downtown Yellowknife is currently under construction. It’s intended to provide a range of services, including ones currently offered at Yellowknife’s sobering centre, for the city’s homeless population.
The territorial government says it will accommodate almost 100 people (including both staff and clients), with 30 beds in the recovery centre and 59 seats in the day shelter, when it opens its doors in early 2027.
‘Get to the root cause’
Josh Rambeau, also someone who works downtown, says he personally doesn’t feel unsafe being in the area. But he also recognizes the presence of things like public drinking could be hard for other people or groups to see, including families or children.
“It seems like a problem that’s only increasing, so it’d be great to come up with some kind of solution,” he said.
Rambeau said it’s important to make people feel safe, and called the added police presence overall a “good move.”
But he also said that RCMP, no matter how present, won’t solve the problem alone — instead, it might just move elsewhere.
“Best case scenario is to get to the root cause of the problem,” said Rambeau, referring to things like housing, employment and addiction services.
Related stories from around the North:
Canada: Nunavut RCMP now investigating August death as homicide, CBC News
Finland: Finland ‘downplays’ suicide figures says expert, Yle News
United States: Alaska’s drug problem worsening as police resources strained, Alaska Public Media
