Candidates say they are consistently hearing about it at the doors. It’s sprinkled across mayoral platforms and mailbox flyers. And the polling backs it up as the top election issue.
Edmontonians feel less safe than they did four years ago — and they want to see change.
Some 85 per cent of respondents in a Janet Brown Opinion Research poll commissioned by CBC News rated improving safety and reducing crime as issues of high importance for the next council.
Addressing public disorder downtown was another high priority issue, at 80 per cent.
But how Edmonton’s next council addresses the issue depends on who gets elected on Oct. 20. The future mayor will have to reckon with funding constraints, managing provincial relations, and limited authority over the police force.
Dan Jones, a retired police officer and chair of justice studies at NorQuest College said candidates have to be careful.
“It’s pretty hard for the mayoral candidates to promise more policing or even how policing is done, because there’s a separation for a reason with the police commission,” Jones said.
Requests must go through the commission to ensure there is no political interference, he said. But Jones said there’s also a need to repair relationships after a tumultuous four years.
“It’s not that the mayor can’t have his or her opinion on what the police should be doing. They can have those discussions. And if they do have a good relationship, then those things can become realized if they’re working together.”
Another challenge is disentangling disorder from crime, and finding the resources to address root causes, he said.
CBC requested interviews with five of the mayoral candidates leading in the Janet Brown poll to talk about their plans for public safety. Omar Mohammad was unable to do an interview.
Andrew Knack
“I’ve been very clear that we’re not going to use jurisdiction as an excuse anymore for inaction,” Knack said.
The former councillor wants to strike a balance between enforcement and prevention — and said after waiting for greater provincial support during his time on council, thinks the city needs to step up to provide proactive solutions itself.
Knack said that means building permanent supportive housing and funding mental health workers and social workers who can work with police.
He wants to maintain the current funding formula for the police, but increase transparency. The previous council requested an audit plan from the police commission, but was denied.
Knack said with a new commission chair and a new police chief, the relationship has been reset and it’s an opportunity to revisit that conversation.
But he’s clear that for him, more police is not the answer.
“What is often meant by safety when I’m talking to people at the doors is the visible [impacts of] housing and homelessness, mental health and addictions,” he said.
“We can’t arrest our way out of these issues.”
Knack wants to create a community safety and well-being formula alongside police funding, to provide social agencies consistent and predictable funding like the city provides police.
Tim Cartmell
“I want to enact and support a proactive community policing ethic,” Cartmell said.
That means more police presence in public spaces who are embedded in a certain community and attuned to its needs, he said. It also would mean supplementing those officers with social workers.
Cartmell said he wants to foster a “zero tolerance” culture shift — where Edmontonians are reporting crime or making calls for help more often — because he’s seen people grow numb to disorder happening around them.
Part of that work would be revitalizing services like 211 and 911 so that they are quick to respond to calls and build greater trust.
Cartmell acknowledged that many of these changes would not fall within the administrative control of the mayor, as is the case with many municipal issues.
But he’d see his role as “the city’s chief diplomat” and would work with the police commission and province to exert influence on these ideas.
It’s a shift from the previous council’s approach, which was overly critical of the police and province, Cartmell said.
“If I’m the mayor, that’s not going to happen. We’re going to be building relationships from day one.”
“We may not agree on everything, but we’re talking about it respectfully and we’re not sabotaging the process in public before it even has a chance to get started.”
Michael Walters
“Without proper day shelter and shelter spaces, people are going to continue to feel uncomfortable and unsafe in their downtown,” Walters said.
Walters said for him the most pressing need is to create places for homeless people to go during the day — and that his first call to Premier Danielle Smith would be about providing help funding these spaces.
That said, Walters said even without provincial support, the city has a responsibility to find a way to do this.
Walters also wants more eyes in transit stations to improve safety, whether that’s peace officers, attendants or commercial businesses. He wants to incentivize kiosks or concession businesses in train stations.
He would maintain the existing police formula but wants a different relationship than that of the previous council — which he called “activist oriented.”
“I don’t think it resulted in greater accountability,” Walters said.
“Honestly, there is no other way than the police working hand in hand with social agency partners and a council that understands that and funds both as much as they possibly can.”
Walters also thinks the current granting system for community safety and well-being needs another look. He said he’d like to make sure that the city is giving money to initiatives that achieve results in reducing neighbourhood crime.
Rahim Jaffer
“The poverty and the mental illness issues, substance abuse, I would like to see that issue and those services moved out of the downtown core,” Jaffer said.
He wants to build a “recovery village” on the grounds of the old Alberta Hospital in northeast Edmonton. Inspired by an Olympic village, it would provide wrap-around support and treatment.
Jaffer disagrees with the current council’s movement toward distributing services into other parts of the city, because he believes it contributes to higher crime in neighbourhoods.
Part of his plan also includes hiring 500 more police officers over four years and is open to increasing the police budget to do so.
He also wants Edmonton police to further embrace a community policing model, and agreed the police should be showing council their audits for accountability.
He said the relationship between police and council turned sour due to politics and that in turn, reduced council’s ability to exert influence on this issue.
“There was unfortunately a breakdown that we saw over the course of the last four years in particular, because there was that movement towards defunding the police.”
“I think if we can repair those relationships, naturally, I believe you’re going to get more openness, more interaction.”
