Excuse us while we do a little math here: 7-4=3, right?
Well, normally yes, but in the case of public safety, the numbers on the surface don’t necessarily add up the same way.
What we mean is that Burnaby is losing seven RCMP bike cops this summer, but gaining four civilian bylaw officers on bikes.
That should be a net loss of only three, but we feel the community is losing a lot more than that with the switch.
The City of Burnaby has stepped up and added the four new civilian officers, at a cost of $334,000, with two women and two men riding around the city’s parks and other public spaces, enforcing bylaws, and reporting crime and suspicious activity to police. The unit will be equipped with cellphones and empowered to enforce bylaw offences ranging from animal control to smoking in parks during a fire ban.
It’s a significant amount of money the city is putting into this pilot program, and it’s welcomed in the wake of the murder of 13-year-old Marrisa Shen in Central Park last July.
But while the city should be commended for spending this money, these civilians are starting at a time when the Burnaby RCMP has cancelled its bike cops program, putting seven members back into general duty.
Chief Supt. Deanne Burleigh, the officer in charge of the Burnaby RCMP detachment, told the city’s public safety committee recently the reason was strictly based on “resourcing pressures.” She told the NOW that if there were “additional resources” given to the RCMP, the program could be reinstated.
If we had to choose between bike cops and bylaw officers on bikes, we’d choose bike cops.
Safety committee member David Pereira agrees, saying that “bylaw enforcement, that’s just regular citizens going through and enforcing bylaws. They certainly don’t have the presence or the ability of a police officer on a bike.”
It makes sense to put what the city is spending on the bylaw officers into the RCMP’s program, plus top it up to get it to the original staffing level. It’s a far more effective form of enforcement than bylaw officers handing out tickets.
Burnaby finished off last year with $257.4 million in surplus at the end of December 2017, more than twice the amount projected by staff. We’d like to see some of that money spent to increase the RCMP’s budget when the two sides get together next to discuss it.
It’s a program worth saving.
