Downtown night patrols needed
Dear Duncan mayor and councillors:
In light of ongoing nightly vandalism downtown, and near our core area, we suggest council redirect our great commissionaires to patrol after hours to help curtail this growing and costly scourge.
Some daytime bylaw officers could still handle daytime issues such as parking infractions — which frankly pale compared to vandalism and risky vagrancy problems largely occurring overnight.
These ideas of course can be paired with council hiring foot-patrol security officers, and requesting more police patrols downtown during the night.
It’s concerning some core businesses have installed expensive, metal door-and-window shutters, while downtown banks now lock their doors to ATMs to stave off nighttime damage.
Perhaps councillors can also solicit feedback and ideas from our downtown business-improvement association members via meetings about how best to tackle these criminal issues.
Yours in urban safety
Peter W. Rusland
North Cowichan