Keep it a walk in the park

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Recent reports of intimidation and threats in Assiniboine Park do not bode well for the grand plan to take Assiniboine Park into a new era of public services, activities and leisure. It is simply unacceptable for citizens who take up the invitation to enjoy the benefits of Winnipeg's prime park land, open 24 hours, to worry for their safety. City council needs to ensure the multi-million dollar makeover of Assiniboine Park underway now gets the help it needs to ensure a criminal element does not take the shine off this gem.

A couple attempting to leave the park recently were threatened by a gang of youths. An attempt to call a park officer for assistance was met with a worrisome reply -- the lone officer on duty was in another city park and unavailable.

This is the natural consequence of a decision in 2009 by city council to cut to seven the number of park police employees. The city cut the $1.1 million spent on park police, reasoning that serious calls for help were better answered by armed officers of the Winnipeg Police Service. Park police, with an office nearby and their phone number posted on park grounds, are responsible for bylaw enforcement.

Warnings were made at the time of the 2009 decision that public protection would deteriorate because parks -- the city has 900 residential and 12 regional parks -- never have been a priority of the Winnipeg Police Service. But for the size of Assiniboine Park, 400 acres of grounds, attractions and forest, there can be no option but to have a permanent security resource patrolling, at the ready for calls for assistance.

The Assiniboine Parks Conservancy, a non-profit now managing the park's transformation, plans to hire a manager soon and a complement of uniformed patrollers to take over security. This is akin to suggestions in 2009 that private security could pick up where the reduced parks police was leaving off. That was unfortunately dismissed out of hand. Now the conservancy will put security on staff, as it has with city grounds keepers.  

Since 2009, Assiniboine Park has essentially relied on Winnipeg police for public safety, but since the handover to the non-profit group, there has been a disconnect between those closest to the park's management and those in charge of public protection there. That is about to change, with a closer relationship being struck between the conservancy and the Winnipeg Police Service.

The conservancy is investing in increased lighting and monitoring in the park. The days of Assiniboine Park as a refuge from the urban jungle are numbered as cameras and motion sensors will be installed and central monitoring will keep vigil over a vast terrain. That is expected to be in place by January 2012.

Summer nights are especially busy for Winnipeg police. Park strollers need a ready resource to call upon if they feel unsafe. Assiniboine Park Conservancy needs to post, publicly and on its website, a phone number of a security force that can be readily available to any citizen walking through the gates, at any hour.

As unfortunate as ratcheting up police presence in Assiniboine Park may be, it is better to protect the pastoral and treed expanses -- features that underscore the city's attractions in tourism campaigns -- than to see them bereft of people too scared to take a walk after dark.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 28, 2011 A10