Police Quarterly Meeting At Regent Park 2023

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Toronto Police officers from 51 Division held their quarterly community meeting with Regent Park residents on March 27th, 2023 at 150 River Street to discuss neighbourhood policing, youth engagement, crime statistics and trends, police- community projects, crime prevention, avoiding scams and fraudsters, and other community concerns. The community discussion was moderated by Sergeant Henry Dyck—the Neighbourhood Community officer supervisor. City Councillor for Toronto Centre Ward 13—Chris Moise— and TCHC Supervisor of Revitalization and Renewal Communities—Shane Bourne— were also present at the meeting.  

Sergeant Henry Duck began the meeting with positive news to share. He reported that from January 1st to March 27th the six neighbourhoods within 51 Division have been doing well in all indicators the police track. This means statistics like assault, sexual assault, shootings, auto theft and homicides have all decreased. Similar Neighbourhood Community officers serving Regent Park reported the good news that the Regent Park community has not experienced any shootings nor homicides  so far this year, although there’s lots of work to be done.

Additionally, a discussion about the Toronto Community Crisis Service arose.  The Toronto Community Crisis Service was launched in early 2022 and was initiated by the city in response to concerns of the community about police lack of training and sensitivity towards people experiencing mental health crisis.  The Toronto Community Crisis Service provides an alternate solution to an individual experiencing a mental health crisis and attending to the matter with motives of focusing on health and the individual themselves, rather than responding with police enforcement. Although its too early to discuss its results, calls within the area of mental health crises have declined to about 14% because of the crisis service  availability. With this new service and its accessibility to residents of Regent Park, the outlook of implementing the service across the city looks good.

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