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Downtown Orillia merchants sound alarm for more foot patrols

Problems downtown have increased during pandemic, business owners say; 'There are more people in need and they’re in the downtown core'
OPSB
Downtown merchant Ellen Wolper made a special presentation to the Orillia Police Services Board to request increased policing on the main street. Mehreen Shahid/OrilliaMatters File Photo

Businesses in downtown Orillia are calling for not only more police presence in the area, but also for addiction issues to be addressed.

Ellen Wolper has noted many incidents involving criminal behaviour and drug use near her store, Paper Kapers, and elsewhere downtown. While she wants more police foot patrol downtown, it’s not because she wants to see everyone get locked up.

“They can get to know people and fast-track services (for people with addiction and mental health issues),” she said. “I don’t want something done to them. I want something done for them.”

Wolper noticed an increase in foot patrol after an article about the issue ran last summer, but she said it didn’t last long.

“You wouldn’t even know that the police station is downtown based on foot patrols downtown,” she said. “I want more police walking the beat. A police presence is a sense of prevention.”

At last month’s Orillia Police Services Board meeting, an Orillia OPP report noted there were three hours of downtown foot patrol in May and June combined.

“That just blew me away. I couldn’t believe it,” Wolper said of the low number.

On the agenda at the same meeting was a letter from the Downtown Orillia Management Board (DOMB), also asking for more foot patrol. It’s a request the DOMB has made many times.

“A police presence downtown does prevent certain behaviours. It’s a crime deterrent,” said DOMB manager Lisa Thomson-Roop.

Like Wolper, Thomson-Roop feels getting people help for addiction and mental health issues should be among the priorities for police. DOMB members have been reporting increasing problems since the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

“There were social services that, unfortunately, didn’t occur during the shutdown, so there are more people in need and they’re in the downtown core,” she said.

The police services board had previously inquired about the possibility of an Orillia OPP satellite office downtown and was told that wouldn’t be looked into until a year after the opening of the new detachment building on University Avenue. It's expected to open this fall.

Thomson-Roop said the idea of a satellite office has not been formally discussed by DOMB members, “but they have been open to that option.”

Regarding its request for more foot patrol, she said, the DOMB has been advised “that the current contract doesn’t allow for that enhancement because officers are deployed elsewhere.”

The OPP is open to a discussion about the matter, said acting Insp. Nathalie Rivard, interim commander of Orillia OPP.

“There’s definitely conversations that can happen in terms of some enhancement. It’s possible to have those conversations,” she said.

Rivard said police “are conducting foot patrol regularly downtown” and are willing and able to get people the support they need.

“We are fully prepared and willing to work with members of our community to address the issues,” she said.

Police can’t be everywhere all the time, so Rivard encourages people to call police to report problems because it helps provide data about issues downtown, and “then we can sit down and devise a strategy,” she said.

A strategy to address the root causes of the issues is what’s needed, said Rob McConnell, owner of Oscar’s Variety.

“There’s obvious addiction issues. The root has got to be taken care of,” he said. “We can ask for all the police in the world, but if they keep getting dumped on the street and the issues aren’t addressed, it doesn’t help.”

His business is the only convenience store on the main street downtown and it is open later than most shops, so he has experienced the problems first-hand.

He said police presence has “improved,” but more needs to be done.

“Whether foot patrol or vehicle patrol is the answer, I don’t know,” he said.


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Nathan Taylor

About the Author: Nathan Taylor

Nathan Taylor is the desk editor for Village Media's central Ontario news desk in Simcoe County and Newmarket.
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