It was standing room only Thursday night at the Salvation Army on Ballentine Street as Cobourg Police hosted a neighborhood meeting for the residents of the Chipping Park Boulevard Area to address localized concerns.
Police Chief Paul VandeGraaf said he was approached by residents of the area last week with concerns and it was suggested a meeting be held. Issues including attempted break and enters, people rummaging through cars, mischief and vandalism as well as nuisance and other concerns. A lot of it stems, residents suggested, from a particular residence in relation to drug issues and a problematic landlord
Cobourg Police Chief Paul VandeGraaf said productive meetings were being held with town officials from multiple departments, including police, fire and bylaw to address the concerns.
Chief VandeGraaf provided statistics comparing the localized area to Cobourg as a whole and said some improvements have already been made since last week’s meeting including increasing neighbourhood patrol, adding CCTV surveillance leading to pending criminal investigations, ongoing collaboration between police, fire and bylaw officials and community engagement such as Thursday night’s meeting.
One resident complained of front doors being checked, including at 8:30 in the morning and 9:30 at night, but they don’t call police because they believe the response time wouldn’t be fast enough.
Police Chief Paul VandeGraaf countered that, noting the average response time is less than eight minutes and that includes some that take close to an hour for minor incidents. For something like a break-and-enter in progress, every available car would be headed to the scene immediately.
Residents asked what they should do to protect their own property and suggested taking action into their own hands but were told to always call police in the event of an emergency.
The chief was questioned on issues that didn’t pertain just to the specific neighbood including catch-and-release, drugs and homelessness.
Chief VandeGraaf urged residents to always report crimes to police, including through their online reporting system for incidents such as theft, mischief, bullying, traffic complaints and more at cobourgpolice.ca/online-reporting so they know where incidents are happening.
Asked for comment following the meeting, two of the organizers of the meeting spoke to Northumberland 89.7, but wished to remain anonymous due to concerns of repercussions from the problematic house near where they live. They were pleased with the turnout and the area residents coming together.
They knew of others who didn’t attend out of fear and they don’t think that should be happening in Cobourg.
The couple have been pleased with the response from Chief VandeGraaf and believe monitoring the Chipping Park area will be a priority for police moving forward and they hope the meeting will build momentum to clean up the area. They added residents will need to keep reaching out to police, fire and bylaw officials to ensure issues surrounding a particular house are dealt with.
Listen below to a comment from Cobourg Police Chief Paul VandeGraaf following the meeting: