City, province touting crime rate drop

Students, however, say safety issues remain

New measures taken by HRM, such as security cameras at pizza corner, have the downtown crime rate dropping. Photo: Edana Robitaille

Halifax Regional Police Chief Frank Beazley is crediting an increased police force and a strong community effort for the overall decrease in violent crime in the HRM. He says over the past three years, the rate of violent crime in Halifax has dropped by about seven per cent.

At the city council meeting on Tuesday, police, councillors and Nova Scotia Justice Minister Cecil Clarke were falling over themselves to congratulate and thank one another for what seems like a major breakthrough. More than one councillor said improved relations between police and the community has led to safer neighbourhoods.

Beazley said working with the Nova Scotia Liquor Commission to create stricter control for the liquor industry has had a positive impact and raising the minimum price of drinks will help prevent serious binge drinking. In past year 3,800 people were charged with drunk and disorderly. He says most of these charges come from downtown bars.

The roundtable and resulting strategies came from the death of an American sailor outside a Halifax bar in 2006. Since then there's been a marked increase in efforts to stem rowdy behaviour in the downtown core.

In the past year alone, the police force has added 50 police to cover the streets and specific beats around the city. Coun. Dawn Sloane (Halifax Downtown) told u-news last week that the increased presence of police combined with security cameras in areas where fights and violence have been a concern, such as Pizza Corner, where Blowers and Grafton St. intersect, have resulted in a noticeable decrease in violence among the drunken university crowd.

It's not just downtown

However, some students say the safety issues extend beyond the downtown area.

"Downtown is a small part of Halifax," says Kathleen Higgins, a Dalhousie student.

Two years ago, Higgins was one of the first victims of the man who used to drive around on his bicycle, grabbing the backsides of women on the sidewalk. The incident happened at the corner of North and Robie. She didn't call the police until a year later when his actions became more publicly known. She didn't think the police would be able to do much.

"I was mostly just really upset and didn't really think about it until a year later when something like 20 people, including a friend of mine, reported the same sort of thing happening," she says. "I called about four different people about five or six different times. I gave my report to three different people and was told that several different people would call me and nothing ever happened."

In the summer of 2007, shortly after arriving in Halifax from Vienna, Lisa Loibl a psychology masters student, was walking home from getting groceries when she was approached from behind, also at the corner of North and Robie, and attacked by two young women who tried to take her purse. She was pushed down and punched in the face but her attackers were scared off by some bystanders. The girls were never caught.

After dark

Higgins and Loibl both say they still feel uneasy wandering around Halifax sometimes, especially after dark.

"I love Halifax and I love living here and it's my town.  But I definitely feel uneasy walking around at times," says Higgins. "Being confronted by strangers seems to happen a lot, aggressive strangers. Its not really a crime, but it's definitely that feeling of uneasiness or angriness. It doesn't seem like the police really pick up on that or do anything about it. I used to work on Spring Garden [Road] a lot and I'd go out front of Park Lane to have my cigarette where a lot of people hang out and scream obscenities at each other while the cops walk by and talk about going to the Dome."

"It's rather rough in Halifax," says Loibl. "Not really robberies, just violence in general. A big part is younger people who are violent. I don't know if they're just trying to rob, but mostly it's like they just want to pass some time. I would think it's a social problem with young people not having opportunities."

Mark Coffin, chair of the Halifax Student Alliance, says schools university residences usually offer a lot of information to new students on places to avoid and how to drink responsibly but it's not really enough because a problem still exists. The group conducted its own student survey in the fall of 2007 and found that 45 per cent of students reported being victims of crime.

"One thing the survey told us is that students are just as much victims of crime and more victims of crime than other members of the population.  Certainly there are some students that are downtown causing trouble late at night but I think that's a very select few and the reality is that were promoting this late night economy ," he says "We're not providing safe transportation and safety service that needs to be there in order to make sure that students aren't victimized coming home from the bars."

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