Victoria Police Chief Del Manak is seeking more officers to deal with a crime wave near Topaz Park where people without homes are staying in tents during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Manak has written to Victoria council asking for $52,500 to increase police presence in the nearby neighbourhoods and prevent crime.
“We just don’t have the resources to provide public safety in that neighbourhood to people on site and off of Topaz Park,” he told the police board Tuesday.
If the money is approved, it will be used to continue paying for additional hours of policing.
A “special duty” deployment began last Friday, and involves the equivalent of two additional officers seven days a week patrolling the neighbourhood around Topaz Park.
The five-week deployment will conclude on May 22 unless the department seeks an extension due to ongoing public safety issues.
Manak told the police board that crime surged in the area after the temporary encampment was established last month to alleviate crowding on Pandora Avenue.
His department reported last week that it received 70 calls for service from the area between April 5 and 11, more than twice the 31 calls received the week of March 15 to 21.
“There’s a high level of anxiety in the community,” Manak said. “We’re doing what we can to work with the community, but there’s one business that has been victimized, I think, up to five times now.”
Rabbi Meir Kaplan of the Chabad Jewish Centre near Topaz Park called on the province and city this week to dismantle the tent city, saying the neighbourhood is living in fear due to a rise in criminal activity.
“We have security cameras in our building and looked at them and, basically, every single night in the last few weeks, people are trying to break into our building,” he said.
“I have a neighbour down the street here, it’s an older couple, and they basically don’t sleep at night because of anxiety.”
Manak said people living at the encampment are worried as well. “There are a lot of people who are living in desperation. They’re fearful.”
He said some of them are arming themselves with hammers, baseball bats and shards of glass in case they have to protect themselves. “And that’s not good for anybody,” he said.
Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps, who co-chairs the police board, said she hopes council will approve the chief’s request.
She said Topaz Park was established on the advice of
Island Health to create physical distancing among people without homes.
“I know it’s an incredibly difficult situation for everyone to manage,” she said. “I think everyone’s hoping that the provincial government’s going to step up in a big way as they’ve committed to doing previously to get people indoors.
“Topaz Park was always meant to be temporary.”
