The province recently announced that several Manitoba communities have been given money towards public safety and security initiatives. One of those communities was Dauphin, given $200,000. Deputy City Manager Lisa Gaudet said the City has decided what they'll be doing with the money: a 6 month Downtown Safety Patrol Pilot program.
Late last week, the City of Dauphin released a Request for Proposals for the project, for private companies and groups to submit their plans for their potential involvement with the program. Gaudet said the City isn't looking for plain old security.
"We've decided to use that funding to do a 6 month downtown security pilot...we're looking for security personnel who are trained in not only your typical security activity, but also who are trained in trauma informed response, naloxone administration, de-escalation," said Gaudet.
At last month's Association of Manitoba Municipalities meeting in Brandon, which saw representatives from most Manitoba municipalities and cities in attendance, a lot of Dauphin's focus was on community safety. In a previous interview, Mayor David Bosiak said a big focus was talking with other communities with safety concerns, and finding out how they've dealt with those concerns. He said it was a good way to see what would work and what wouldn't work for Dauphin.
Gaudet said public safety and security is one of the top priorities for council, and they'll keep working to improve it.
"Public safety is one of the three priorities of this council, and I think it's probably one of the priorities of the folks in our community as well, so council and senior management are continually having those conversations with the province and other municipalities," said Gaudet.
Something mentioned several times by several council and city staff members was the recent hour change at the Safe Warm Space in town. It's an increasingly relevant safety concern. Gaudet said this pilot program will help the city collect data to find viable solutions.
"There's more activity going on out there in our parks, and in our facilities, and in some of the businesses that are maybe creating some challenges. So I'm hoping that this is going to create a good summer for our businesses and for our downtown, and that we'll get some good data coming out of that," said Gaudet.
The deadline for proposals to the City for their Downtown Safety Patrol Pilot program is May 26th.
