Bank Street businesses urge Ottawa police to bring back foot patrols

Businesses along Bank Street are calling on Ottawa police to bring back foot patrols to help curb panhandling, loitering and other unwanted activity near their shops.

After catching people defecating and even engaged in sexual activity behind her store, Planet Botanix owner Heather Garrod has had enough.

"It's very hard to be a compassionate person and a business person at the same time. Sometimes the two don't overlap very well. So I was always reluctant to call law enforcement, but at one point I really had to, because there were things happening in the back that were totally unacceptable," said Garrod.

It's a common woe for Bank Street businesses, according to Christine Leadman, executive director of the Bank Street Business Improvement area. She wants Ottawa police to re-establish their presence on the street, and to target such activities as loitering and panhandling that may inhibit access to shops.

"The policing structure has just changed for the worse. To me, there should have been that community base, community policing," she said. "Now they're just a cop in a car. They're no longer a community officer."

Police urge communication

While the Ottawa Police Service recently reduced its number of community police officers on foot patrol in the city from 15 to 10, Insp. Sterling Hartley said the force is adapting its strategy to go where officers are needed.

"I think the thing that we need to focus on here is, where is it needed? And at different times that can change. Panhandlers move. Aggressive panhandlers move," said Hartley, who oversees community safety services for Ottawa police. 

"So the trick here is a communication between the store owners and my community police officers so that we can move to where the problems are."

Hartley said there will be more officers on bicycles over the summer, and with the school year over, school resource officers will be freed up to join foot patrols.

Meanwhile, a panhandler who goes by Marcus said he doesn't want to see all panhandlers labelled aggressive. He said he has a good relationship with stores on Bank Street because he makes a point of sitting quietly, out of the way of store entrances.

"What I do is I just sit passively. I don't solicit from anyone. And that way [police] can't get you with aggressive panhandling. If there's a problem it'll be in the next month or two when tourist season starts," he said.

Homelessness 'a bigger problem'

Other store owners on Bank believe it's important to remember the causes of homelessness when addressing some of these issues.

"One of the strengths of Centretown is the diversity. It sometimes can also be a little bit of a challenge. There's a lot of very economically challenged people in this part of the city," said Sheen Zain of Aziz & Company, a family-run business that's been at the corner of Bank and Gilmour streets for 53 years. 

"A lot of the marginalized communities are living in these neighbourhoods. So I think we have a bigger problem with homelessness maybe than a lot of other people have, and with people who don't have anything else to do during the day who are maybe loitering or maybe wandering."