It’s been one year since the City of Edmonton released its safety plan after two men were beaten to death in Chinatown on May 18, 2022. The killingS sparked outrage from the community and a demand from then-justice minister Tyler Shandro for city council to create a plan to manage a situation he called “extremely concerning and inappropriate.”
While there are different opinions on steps taken since then in an effort to address the situation, at least one area business owner has offered an optimistic look at changes being made.
Will Chen, owner of Van Loc, a restaurant in Chinatown, said he’s noticed improvements over the past year.
“I think it’s gotten a lot better. The streets are definitely cleaner,” he said.
“The city and the folks taking down the tents make it a little bit nicer for people to walk around.”
On June 9, 2022, the city released its Downtown Core and Transit System Safety Plan, a 30-page document that describes a dozen recent actions and four longer-term actions.
Actions taken – some of which were taken directly after the killings and some of which had been in the works for years – broadly look to answer three challenges: addressing law enforcement when it comes to street crime and disorder; addressing root causes by getting vulnerable people the supports they need through housing and mental health and addictions treatment; and returning vibrancy to Chinatown and downtown.
While some who frequent Chinatown have said the situation was improving, they all agree there is still work to do.
When it comes to front-line initiatives aimed at cracking down on crime and disorder, the city, police and province have taken a number of steps since the release of the June 2022 safety plan.
Healthy Streets Operations Centre (HSOC)
Who: Police, peace officers, paramedics
What: Enforce law, provide visible presence of police
Where: Hot spots of crime and disorder: Chinatown, downtown, Kingsway
When: Teams deployed beginning of December 2022
Why: Community members wanted increased police presence, paramedics help divert ambulances
How: Teams patrol “hot spots”
On the first anniversary of the killings, the Edmonton Police Commission (EPC) received a presentation on the results of the program that launched in late 2022.
Police said crime severity went down in the time and areas where HSOC operated. In November, the crime severity index was around 115 and it dipped in February to 77.5 before rising to 85.8 in March, the most recent month for which data was provided, according to police.
The crime severity index is a measurement of crime that accounts for Edmonton’s population, the number of crimes occurring and the seriousness of the crimes, according to the Edmonton Police Service.
Insp. Angela Kemp said teams intervened nearly 3,500 times in what she called “proactive engagements.”
“It stops public complaints because the individuals on our teams are engaging with the public and community members in this space before situations can escalate,” she said.
Alberta Sheriffs
Who: Alberta Sheriffs (through the provincial government), EPS
What: Fifteen-week pilot project that partnered sheriffs with HSOC officers to expand hours and service capacity
Where: Chinatown, downtown, Kingsway, Boyle Street, McCauley
When: Started Feb. 14, 2023
Why: Increase police visibility, “to deter crime and protect people from criminals”
How: By adding “more boots on the ground”
The Alberta government said in a news release in late April that the teams with sheriffs had recovered nearly $125,000 in stolen property and seized $50,000 worth of street drugs.
A spokesperson for the province added the continuation of the partnership would be considered once the cabinet of the new government was chosen and sworn in.
An Alberta Sheriff and Edmonton Police Service officer near a homeless encampment north of downtown Edmonton, Alta. on Thursday, March 2, 2023.
Saif Kaisar, Global News
Community Outreach Transit Team
Who: City of Edmonton transit peace officers, Bent Arrow Traditional Healing Society outreach workers
What: Help people in need of support with the resources they need, including housing, mental health, substance use and addiction resources
Where: Transit facilities including stations, LRT cars and buses
When: Starting July 2021
Why: “Some disorder observed is rooted in core social issues such as lack of housing, mental health and substance use,” according to a city report
How: Teams aim to deliver compassionate, trauma-informed supports to marginalized individuals
In a report given to city council on March 20, the city said numbers could not always effectively convey the impact and complexity of the team’s work. Nonetheless, the report said in the first year the teams made 2,700 contacts where members shared information about programs. In about one in five of those contacts, specific referrals were made and transportation was facilitated, according to the city.
The city said 250 different people were followed up on with ongoing support in the second half of the year.
Integrated Care Centre (ICC)
Who: Edmonton police, peace officers, paramedics, Radius Community Health and Healing
What: People detained for public intoxication are connected to medical supports and can get referred to an addiction treatment program
Where: Former holding cells at the police headquarters downtown
When: Opened March 29, 2023
Why: “Ensure that individuals get access to the health and social supports they may need to stem their crisis”
How: Twelve peace officers and four paramedics can help up to 17 people at a time
Global News asked Edmonton police how many people had accessed the ICC since it opened but that data was not available in time for publication, according to police.
Public Spaces Bylaw Review
Who: City of Edmonton
What: The city is reviewing three bylaws that address what people are allowed to do in public spaces
Where: Transit, parks, sidewalks, food courts, other public areas
When: The city wrapped up public engagement in May, new bylaw to be considered by council in Q3 2023
Why: Promote consistency and clarity
How: Consolidate three bylaws into one
A spokesperson with the city said administration was seeking feedback on the bylaw because while most people agree it’s not appropriate to, for example, use drugs in public spaces, many have differing ideas on how to address it.
“We want to have an overarching bylaw that governs all public spaces but has the ability to focus on particular areas that maybe need some specific attention,” deputy city manager Gord Cebryk said in an interview in May.
Human-centred Engagement and Liaison Partnership (HELP) Unit
Who: Edmonton police, outreach agencies
What: An effort to break the cycle of arrest, remand, release that many vulnerable people fall into
Where: City-wide, every day 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
When: Launched Jan. 4, 2021
Why: “Front-line patrol officers don’t have the vast skill set or resources to treat each vulnerable person’s specific needs”
How: Constables team up with social workers to provide referrals to services, follow-ups and case-management plans
Edmonton police said HELP teams divert one person from the justice system every day, with 889 referrals in 2021, 2,641 in 2022, and 664 in 2023 as of mid-April.
Manager of H.E.L.P. Team Boyle Street Community Services Doug Cooke checks on homeless people and hands out supplies in Edmonton, Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021.
Jason Franson, The Canadian Press
Police and Crisis Response Team (PACT)
Who: Edmonton police and mental health therapists from Alberta Health Services
What: Some therapists patrol with EPS members while others are placed in dispatch to support 911 dispatchers and police
Where: City-wide
When: Started in 2004
Why: Support people calling with mental health concerns and free up police resources
How: Mental health therapists connect people to supports and stabilization services
In a news release in mid-April, Edmonton police said PACT saw 5,031 referrals in 2021, 6,692 in 2022, and 1,772 so far in 2023.
In addition to the above programs, EPS, the city and the province have all committed at one time or another to providing more police officers in “high harm and high disorder” neighbourhoods.
Are these programs working?
Christina Trang, whose father Hung Trang was killed in the May attacks, lauded the HSOC for helping improve the area.
“I think the team being in and around the community and engaging and trying to help where they can, whether it’s social services, whether it’s medical, all that brought to the community has been very helpful and maybe it’s even been able to help offload any emergencies,” she said.
“The Healthy Streets Operations (Centre) is definitely a start to getting vibrancy back into Chinatown, where we can create a little more safety for everybody.”
Trang is now working with the Chinatown and area business improvement association, working to return vibrancy to the neighbourhood.
Chen said the increased police presence has made residents and business owners feel safer.
“Just seeing police officers and peace officers walking around, it helps with a sense of safety and community. And they’re always nice, smiling, waving,” he said.
LISTEN: Co-owner of Van Loc Wilson Wong is working to make his restaurant a ray of sunshine for Chinatown
Chen said he doesn’t feel threatened by the presence of vulnerable people in the neighbourhood.
“I don’t worry about it too much. I mean, they’re normal people just like you and me, and sometimes they just want some dignity,” he said, adding he serves them as customers too.
“I think we’re on the right path right now. Personally, I would like it to happen a little bit faster.”
Temitope Oriola, a criminologist at the University of Alberta, said increasing police presence may actually artificially increase the rate of crime in an area.
“In deploying more police resources, it’s important that we understand that we may end up, at least in the short term, actually ballooning the rate of crime, because we now have more resources, more police cars and cruisers and boots on the ground enforcing the law and therefore increasing the likelihood that we would see more crime,” he said.
At the same time, what Oriola said what he calls “performative enforcement” can help people feel safer in the core..
“It’s essentially a show of officer presence in specific designated spaces that produces a sociopsychological effect of assuring members of the public that we are doing something and all of that,” he said.
“Objectively speaking, the numbers may be the same or the numbers might have gone up, but you would have tackled, at least in the interim, the feeling (of safety) among members of the public.”
But this is a temporary reprieve, Oriola said, as more police will not permanently fix crime and disorder so long as the root causes are not addressed.
Oriola said police organizations have a tendency to come up with new programs with new names in response to public demands instead of focusing on ones that already exist.
“The problem is often this frenetic pace with which they come up with all kinds of programs and therefore shifting attention almost automatically to the newly formed program until the next one is formed,” he said.
Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said he believes the city is doing what it can but there is more work to do.
“We have a long, long way to go to make Edmonton a safer community,” he said.
Sohi said the city has allocated resources for safety on public transit, hired new transit peace officers and more social workers and stabilized police funding.
“Anecdotally, we hear people’s experiences of feeling safe as well as feeling unsafe,” he acknowledged.
Elliott Tanti, spokesperson for social agency Boyle Street Community Services, said any time there is an increase in law enforcement in an area, the houseless community feels it.
“While I appreciate that the more visible presence of police in the area does help to make some feel safer, it’s only one piece… (of) what needs to be a much more diverse range of supports for the area,” he said.
“Our police chief has said this, we’ve said this: We’re not going to arrest our way out of the challenges that we’re facing in our community.”
This article is the first in a three-part series examining Edmonton’s core one year after the city introduced a “safety plan” following the killings of two men in Chinatown. The second article on homelessness, mental health and addictions will be published Saturday and the third article on revitalizing the neighbourhood will be published Sunday.