20170403_ca_calgary

Page 1

Calgary

Police ‘solidarity’ alienating citizens

Vicky Mochama, metroVIEWS

Your essential daily news

High 7°C/Low -4°C Partly cloudy

MONDAY, APRIL 3, 2017

Less carrot, more stick BYLAW OFFENDERS

City looks to target properties with multiple complaints

YOUR BEE-LIST The best blooms for Calgary’s climate to bring back the bees metroNEWS

Colin Hayles, left, a horticulturalist at Golden Acre Home and Garden, and Liz Goldie, a member of the Calgary and District Beekeepers Association, with some bumblebee-friendly plants. JENNIFER FRIESEN/FOR METRO

Brodie Thomas

Metro | Calgary When it comes to enforcing bylaws, Calgary uses a carrot-before-the-stick approach, according to Coun. GianCarlo Carra. But in a tiny number of cases, citizens have abused that goodwill, so now the city is looking at ways it can better collaborate across departments to nip problem properties in the bud. A report going to committee this week makes a number of suggestions on how to better utilize community standards officers (a.k.a. bylaw officers). Carra said the problem became clear to him after a double arson at

JOIN THE FIGHT SUPPORT CANADIANS LIVING WITH CANCER

BUY A PIN

cancer.ca/daffodil

an abandoned home in Bridgeland in early March. “The community was right in feeling this was bound to happen,” he said. “They’d been calling in different complaints to different parts of the city.” The problem, according to Carra, is that the left hand didn’t know what the right hand was doing as those calls went into different departments. The report from administration going to committee suggests an automated system that would identify properties that get multiple complaints through 311, 911 and other city departments. Having automated flagging of problem properties will help officers better address them, and perhaps move from the carrot to the stick more quickly when needed, according to Carra. The report also notes the city is looking at new shift schedules for its 116 peace officers who focus on bylaw enforcement. The change is meant to make the officers more visible in communities, and give them more time to attend service requests.


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.