ELECTIONS: Meloche petition for improvement of community safety and security

One of the most troubling conclusions I have reached is that some of our businesses are slowly becoming accidental front-line public-safety providers.

Restaurant managers are not police officers.

Retail workers are not security guards.

Teenage employees are not crisis-intervention specialists.

A 17-year-old working a closing shift should never be expected to manage a potentially violent, intoxicated or unpredictable individual because society has somehow normalized that as part of the job.

Someone eventually encounters the wrong person on the wrong night.

I do not want Pickering having this conversation after that employee has been seriously injured.

That is the heart of this entire initiative: prevention.

Communities rarely deteriorate overnight. They adapt to deterioration.

The first incident is alarming. The tenth becomes frustrating. Eventually, businesses install barriers, lock washrooms, move merchandise, hire security, shorten hours and tell employees not to intervene.

Then customers begin changing their habits.

And little by little, something that should never have been acceptable becomes normal.

That is dangerous not only from a public-safety perspective, but economically.

Small businesses cannot absorb endless increases in theft, insurance, security costs, employee turnover and reduced operating hours. A business can have plenty of customers and still decide that operating in a particular location simply isn’t worth the risk anymore.

One vacancy becomes two.

Foot traffic declines.

Investment declines.

And suddenly what began as a public-order problem has become an economic-development problem.

That is why supporting Pickering businesses cannot simply mean encouraging residents to shop locally.

If we truly support them, we also have to help create an environment in which their employees and customers feel safe.

My proposal asks Durham Regional Police to help determine whether the individual stories I am hearing are actually part of identifiable geographic patterns.

If the restaurant, pharmacy, retailer and neighbouring businesses are all reporting recurring problems in the same area, we should stop looking at those incidents exclusively through separate files.

We should ask whether we are looking at one larger problem.

And then we should act.

I am proposing a focused 90-day Pickering Business Safety Initiative, stronger relationships between West Division and our business community, concentrated use of proven approaches such as Safe Shop where appropriate, better analysis of recurring hotspots, a review of visible enforcement, stronger attention to dangerous road and e-bike behaviour, and a practical examination of how calls from businesses are triaged.

But there is another part of this conversation that matters enormously to me: accountability.

Supporting our police cannot mean simply approving every request without asking what the investment accomplishes.

At the same time, fiscal responsibility cannot mean refusing necessary resources simply because they cost money.

I want something better.

If DRPS requires additional officers, investigators, analysts, traffic capacity, technology or civilian support to materially improve public safety in Pickering, then I want to know.

Tell us what the problem is.

Tell us what resource is missing.

Tell us what it costs.

Tell us what improvement taxpayers should expect.

And then measure whether it worked.

That is the kind of police budget I could defend.

Ultimately, my work on this has brought me to one question that I believe Pickering needs answered:

Are we dealing with a resource problem, a deployment problem, a prioritization problem, a reporting problem — or some combination of all four?

Because those answers matter.

If police need resources, I will advocate for resources.

If deployment needs to change, let’s change it.

If priorities need examination, let’s examine them.

If businesses have stopped reporting because they have lost confidence, we need to rebuild that confidence.

And if we have gradually downloaded responsibilities onto restaurant employees, shopkeepers and teenagers that they were never trained or equipped to handle, then we need to correct that.

What I refuse to accept is doing nothing.

I am not approaching Durham Regional Police as an adversary.

I strongly support our police officers. I respect the incredibly difficult job they perform. And I believe the strongest relationship between government, police and the community is one where support and accountability exist at the same time.

This petition is about strengthening that relationship.

It is about walking into the room with more than anecdotes.

It is about being able to say:

These are the concerns I have heard.

Here is the detailed proposal.

And here are the residents, employees and business owners of Pickering who are asking you to take it seriously.

A single voice can raise an issue.

Hundreds of voices can demonstrate that the issue deserves attention.

That is why I am asking you to sign.

If you own a business and have experienced these challenges, please sign.

If you work in a business and believe employees deserve greater protection, please sign.

If you are a resident who believes visible, proactive and evidence-based policing matters, please sign.

And if your business has experienced incidents that you have stopped reporting because you no longer believe reporting will accomplish anything, I especially want to hear from you.

The warning signs are already here.

We should not require a tragedy before deciding they mattered.

I am going to bring this case forward.

I am going to ask difficult questions.

I am going to advocate for action now, better planning for the next police budget, and measurable outcomes afterward.

But I would much rather walk into that meeting carrying the voices of Pickering with me.