Calgary
Police ‘solidarity’ alienating citizens
Vicky Mochama, metroVIEWS
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MONDAY, APRIL 3, 2017
Less carrot, more stick BYLAW OFFENDERS
City looks to target properties with multiple complaints
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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
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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.