Random stranger assaults, gratuitous vandalism, organized group shoplifting, addicts in fentanyl freezes in doorways, tent-filled city streets resembling set pieces from a post-apocalypse movie, overdose deaths at a rate of six a day.
“This has become the forefront issue for us,” Smith said. “We’ve definitely noticed and heard about increases in crime. A lot of property crime – smashed windows, a lot of graffiti, break-and-enters – and there’s been a lot of concern around increasing aggressive encounters between small business owners, their employees and individuals that are coming into their places of business.”
“If someone is passed out on the street, you take him off the street and put him in detox,” Eng said. “It seems like, right now, the only intervention is once a person has overdosed.” When city council denied the Vancouver Police Department’s request for a $5.7 million bump to the police budget for 2021, B.C.’s Director of Police Services ordered the city to put the funding in its budget. But as a result of the city’s decision not to fully fund the VPD, the force was unable to hire 61 new recruits.
As a result of surging crime and general street disorder, some Vancouver municipal candidate slates now have platforms highlighting public safety. That may be easier said than done, said pollster and political observer Mario Canseco of Research Co., who points out that ABC would need a majority on council to make good on such a promise.
In April, the BC Urban Mayors’ Caucus – a group of 13 mayors in B.C. – called on the provincial government to bring in stronger bail conditions and harsher sentencing for prolific offenders. “That is a failure of the B.C. government,” said Anita Huberman, president of the Surrey Board of Trade. “There’s been so many studies already done. The time for studies is over. They need to implement action right now.
“We saw a huge trend, starting after [fall] 2020, in violent shopliftings as well,” she said. “It was an organized shoplifting, similar to what we’ve seen in San Francisco, Seattle. It’s almost like they have a list. They’ll walk into the Lululemon and they’ll take $1,000 of merchandise. The weapons usage has increased, too, in the last two years in the downtown core.”
“If the city doesn’t want the police policing certain things, if the prosecution services won’t lay charges, why are the police wasting their resources?” She cited one case in which a repeat offender one morning caused $100,000 in damage, mostly broken windows, was arrested and released in the afternoon on a promise to appear.