Mayor's comments on downtown assault bring range of suggestions for follow up

If Mayor Brain is taking notes from his Facebook post of earlier this week on the topic of a recent downtown assault, then he may be getting a feeling that there is a significant issue for concern related to public safety that is starting to gain some momentum in the community.

The incident which took place in the early morning hours of November 27th, saw a Prince Rupert resident assaulted by four males, so far the RCMP have not indicated if any progress has been made into the investigation of the assault.

The victim is currently in Prince George recovering from surgery that was required as result of the vicious attack in the downtown core, near Seventh Street and Second Avenue West.

Since the Mayor's observations on the incident for his December 3rd Facebook post, a range of comments have been added to the information stream, many indicating that violence in the downtown area is not an isolated thing, while a number of participants make note of the concerns they have about general safety in the core area.

Among the suggestions a call for an expanded police presence in the area, the consideration of cameras for key segments of the downtown region, improved lighting throughout the downtown area, even a call for vigilante justice, something that no one would want to see take over the streets of the city.

One idea that shouldn't be too hard for Council to deliver on called for a Public Forum with the Mayor, City Council and RCMP to discuss the issue of downtown violence and crime, along with a review of some of the solutions that might help to make the community feel safer in the downtown section of the city.

Some of the Mayor's readers apparently have already started the Public Forum concept through his Facebook feed, as these contributions to the discussion show.

City council has rarely discussed policing issues in the public Council session forum, only having had the Inspector in Charge of the local RCMP appear as part of a Council discussion once in the last few years.

That from an August 24th 2017 update for council to review some notes on detachment matters.

Last month, the annual Maclean's National Crime Review delivered a statistical overview that placed Prince Rupert among the ten communities of concern in British Columbia and in the top 25 on a nationwide basis when it comes to a look at all Crimes reported.

The document offered up a review of a range of offences and how the community stacked up with other Canadian cities and towns, with such crimes as robbery, assault and sexual assault among the areas of note for the publication.

If council members have been appraised of recent incidents of concern from the public that required attention, they haven't shared them with the public very often, nor have they recommended many actions that could be taken towards concerns of crime and violence in the downtown area.

City Council meets on Monday evening for their final session of 2018, it will offer the Mayor and his six council members one final opportunity for the year to offer up some guidance for the public and outline what steps as a city that they can take up to reassure residents and make for a feeling of a safer downtown area.

For more items related to the work of Emergency Responders across the Northwest see our archive page here, a look at some of the past Council Discussion themes can be found here.