Figaro! Figaro! Go on, off you go!

THOMPSON — Turns out the troublemakers aren’t big opera fans.

Fed up with drinking, drug use and violence in the parking lot at Thompson’s downtown mall, the owner has weaponized musical theatre recordings by flying soprano sorties and dropping baritone bombs from an outdoor sound system.

The curtain went up and the performances — this week it has been Mozart’s the Marriage of Figaro playing on a loop — began in late November.

Since then, the company that provides security at the property has documented a 24 per cent decrease in criminal activity, physical altercations and other undesirable incidents compared to the number recorded from late May and late November.

“This is a preventative measure that doesn’t involve physical interaction, and that’s very exciting for us, because the security guards are literally in danger, as well as some customers,” Brock Rogerson, president of City Centre mall’s owner R2 Capital Partners, said from the company’s office in Redondo Beach, Calif.

A few months before R2 Capital Partners took over the mall in 2023, a Walmart security guard was attacked with a shopping cart outside the store, requiring 17 staples to close a head wound.

And not long after the purchase, an argument between two men outside the store escalated into fight that resulted in a fatal stabbing, Rogerson said.

The operatic offensive, which followed the installation of new lighting and an increase to on-site security several months earlier, has earned mixed reviews in the community, not least of which came from the city itself.

Within days of the Nov. 25 debut, the mall was ticketed for violating Thompson’s noise bylaw.

“We did have better initial results when the volume was louder, but we do still see positive trends and a reduction of loitering and large group gatherings in the parking lots and around the property,” said Rogerson.

The strategy isn’t new — some Winnipeg 7-Eleven locations played classical music to discourage loiterers in their parking lots as far back as 1991.

Business owners inside and near the mall aren’t convinced the music will have long-term benefits.

“There’s not a big difference. When they (started playing the music), a little bit, but not right now,” said Jag Sandhu, owner of the mall’s Corner Deli. “They now dance over the music.”

Shelly Sloan, who runs Shelly’s Secondhand Store across the street, had a similar take.

“I think it has (helped) a bit, but I think they’ve already gotten used to it,” she said.

“It makes it hard to have a business here, between the theft and people hanging out and drinking and cursing and spitting… (shoppers) are scared to get out of their vehicles to go in… they’re scared they’re going to be harassed.”

Joan Goble, who was shopping for groceries Tuesday, said she doesn’t know whether the tactic is effective.

“It was an idea, they’ve tried it. I see many people still hanging out.”

Goble has lived in Thompson since 1970 and said the problem has become more noticeable in recent years.

People who don’t appear to be shoppers often gather around the entrance to Walmart, sometimes moving across the parking lot in large groups.

Drivers compete for parking spots closest to the main entrance. The shorter the walk, the less likely they are to be harassed.

Last week, the Manitoba government announced it would provide $250,000 to the City of Thompson to fund a crime-suppression unit as part of the province’s public-safety strategy.

“The idea of the crime-suppression unit, it’ll be for RCMP officers that are strictly working downtown. Not necessarily City Centre mall, but our whole downtown area,” Thompson Mayor Colleen Smook told the Free Press.

“If there is the drug dealers, the bootleggers, they’ll be charging them or doing what they need to do.”

The unit will be comprised of four RCMP officers and four community safety officers, tasked with responding to criminal activity in the area, something Rogerson anticipates will have a positive effect overall.

“We’re looking forward to working with the crime-suppression unit when it launches,” he said. “I think they’re targeting June or July. So that’ll be great, and we can hopefully have our security teams co-ordinate with them as well, and really leverage what we can do there,” he said.

Smook said the city has been dealing with issues outside the mall for almost 20 years, but the situation worsened following the pandemic.

She attended the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse and Addiction small-city mayors’ conference in Lethbridge, Alta., this week, which focused on open substance use in public spaces, rising numbers of substance use–related hospitalizations and deaths and a lack of affordable and stable housing.

The Thompson Chamber of Commerce and RCMP did not respond to requests for comment.

Rogerson said safety is the priority for business owners and their customers at the mall. For the time being, the music will remain.

“Hopefully people are enjoying it, but whether they’re enjoying it or not, our purpose of the music is not necessarily for the enjoyment of listening,” he said.

“It’s just so much more important that we provide a safe environment where people are not being physically attacked and verbally assaulted, than, you know, worry about the music.”

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca