Lighting up the ’hood

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/06/2019 (2566 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

What began as a seasonal spike in vandalism for folks in River Heights has become the norm as residents work to put the spotlight back on property crime.

The River Heights Crescentwood Safety Association is in the process of providing up to 100 homes in the neighbourhood with a free, professionally installed solar powered motion detector light as part of its Brighten Up program.

The lights — 180 LED, 1,500-lumen triple-head fixtures — are being installed in the back lanes and yards of strategic properties and in co-operation with local police and homeowners in the area, explained association founder Marli Sakiyama.

“The purpose would be to try to enhance the safety of the area by providing programming to respond to the types of crime and vandalism we’re seeing,” Sakiyama said.

Sakiyama, who is also an administrator of the Crescentwood Neighbours Facebook group, said neighbours have shared stories about coming face-to-face with home intruders, having car windows repeatedly smashed, and bikes snatched from garages.

“We were getting a lot of complaints of criminal activity and vandalism the last few years on the Facebook page. I said, ‘OK, let’s stop complaining and try to do something about it,’” Sakiyama said.

In 2018, Sakiyama spearheaded a project to install 50 lights in the community, funded through the office of River Heights-Fort Garry ward councillor John Orlikow. Sakiyama also worked with the City to install a light at Harrow Park. In June, another grant was approved for the group, through Orlikow’s office, to double the number of motion-detector lights destined for the area.

Sakiyama said this time around she’s co-ordinating with the Winnipeg Police Service West District community support unit to identify specific lots for the fixtures.

Last week, Sakiyama was out door-knocking with constables Kelby Wildeman and Sandy Laurel, talking to neighbours about the program and offering lights to residents that have been repeat victims of property crime in the past 12 months.

“It’s very innovative, it’s good work upon the police, and shows that the little time that volunteers have, can make an impact,” Sakiyama said.

“We are very fortunate to live in our area but we can’t take that for granted,” she added. “We still need to be responsible for our property; we can’t expect the police to do it for us.”

According to data provided by the Winnipeg Police Service, there’s been a 73 per cent increase in the number of reported property crime related offences in River Heights and Crescentwood since March 2018.
Between March 2018 and 2019 (the most recent data available), 3,497 offences were reported in the area, including McMillan and Earl Grey, a three-year high for the neighbourhood.

This March, 236 property crime offences were recorded, an increase over the 146 reported in 2018. In particular, the neighbourhoods of North River Heights (19 reported offences), Mathers (20), McMillan (51), and Rockwood (16) were hit the hardest that month.

“The problem in River Heights is you have such good trees and large canopies that it’s very dark at night,” Winnipeg Police Insp.-Cmdr. Mike Herman said. “People cruise those lanes and basically help themselves to whatever is in people’s vehicles and yards.

“Just the way that neighbourhood is set up… people can go down those laneways and be invisible in seconds because it is so dark at night,” he said.

A co-ordinated effort to install lights in the neighbourhood could be an effective crime deterrent measure, Herman said.

“Nobody else is doing it that I’m aware of in the city,” he said. “It brings it to the forefront to help engage the community because we can’t do it alone. They play a huge role in crime prevention.”

In collaborating with the community safety association, Herman said the service is trying to connect with people who’ve been targeted numerous times.

“It’s very frustrating for citizens, because they almost feel like the police aren’t doing anything, nobody’s doing anything, and (they’re) just reporting it,” he said. “It was a good opportunity to connect with those folks and let them know we’re working on a strategy.”

With finite resources for Winnipeg Police to draw from, Herman said community engagement and ownership has to be supported. Herman said citizen reports to the WPS inform how resources are deployed in the community, and in an area as large as the West District, of which River Heights is only one-10th, accurate data is critical to identify spikes and develop policing strategies specific to the neighbourhood.

“Five years of crime data is establishing a norm, and every week I get deviations from the norm to try and find where the spike above an average crime rate would be in a neighbourhood,” Herman explained.

“We have to make some decisions to direct our resources to where the crime is happening in a timely manner,” he said. “The days of just patrolling an area for the sake of ‘That’s my car area’ is long gone.”

To get in touch with the River Heights Crescentwood Safety Association email rhcsafetyassoc@gmail.com