Date: Monday, June 5, 2023
File: 23-19532
Victoria, BC – In response to community concerns and an increase in calls for service, officers with VicPD’s General Investigation and Outreach Sections are working alongside City of Victoria Bylaw staff, to conduct sustained bylaw enforcement in Topaz Park.
Officers are conducting sustained enforcement in response to concerns from the community and significant increases in the number and severity of calls for service in Topaz Park in the first months of 2023.
Calls for service to the Topaz Park area are up 60 per cent over last year. They are the highest they have been in three years. Many of these calls are due to concerns of public disorder, and assistance calls in which police officers are required to help keep City of Victoria Bylaw staff safe as they enforce City of Victoria Bylaws.
In addition to the increased calls for service, officers are responding to concerns from area residents, sports teams, and other park users that the area has become unsafe.
Officers and Bylaw staff have provided significant advanced warning to those who are sheltering in the park that they will have to remove structures, in keeping with the City of Victoria’s overnight sheltering bylaws. Many of these structures have become semi-permanent fixtures.
The enforcement will continue on a daily basis for a sustained period in order to ensure those who shelter in the park overnight are prepared to follow the bylaws by removing their structures by 7 a.m. each day.
If you have a concern about safety in a local park, please call the VicPD Report Desk at (250) 995-7654 extension 1.
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