Merritt Policing Office held a Community Safety Forum

MERRITT – A Community Safety Forum took place last night (December 6) for the public to learn some tips and ask questions to the Merritt Community Policing Office.

“I think its great,” said Marlene Jones, Community Policing Office Coordinator, “There’s more people than last time and I think we will be looking forward to some great questions., we had some originally when people were coming in, so it’s just nice for the policing and community policing to get out there, back out there into the community, and listen to what people have for concerns.”

Jones said they have been planning this event for a while now and it was perfect timing right before the holidays.

“These things take a little bit of time to put together and Constable [Blake] Chursinoff come to us in the spring and this was sort of on his radar. So after summer and people returned back to things but before the holidays.”

During the event Chursinoff and Jones both gave presentations, in which Jones went through Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED). It is a safety measure for residents around their homes and throughout public spaces. Jones added there has been a couple residents to reach out and want more information and she is happy to help.

“I think the public is surprised that we can offer that service for them and I get pretty good feedback for when we do do it. We make suggestions, some things would cost money and some people find that prohibitive, but sometimes its just a small amount of money, just depends on what your priorities are. For us to come out and help that’s a free service that the Community Policing Office runs but you know if we are recommending more security lights or moving something or changing something we understand that some of that might have some cost associated to it and that’s up to people if they want to do it or not.”

The forum ended with a question and answer period with the roughly 25 people who attended. Most of the question period was shifted towards the decriminalization of certain illicit drugs, which comes into affect on January 31, 2023.