Prince Albert city council to explore curfew for walkways, back alleys

Prince Albert voted this week to explorea bylaw that would implement a curfew on the city's back alleys and walkways, with hopes of reducing property crime rates in the Gateway to the North.

Ward 8 Coun. Ted Zurakowskimade the proposal on Monday.

Council voted in favour of the motion, but one who opposed the motion said it could lead to racism.

Ward 2 Coun. Terra Lennox-Zepp said the proposed bylaw would be similar to carding, an action where police can randomly stop citizens to ask for identification.

"The City of Prince Albert, we do have issues with racism in our city," Lennox-Zepp said.

"Other municipalities have made the decision to prohibit carding of this nature."

Carding and police checks has come under scrutiny inother municipalities.

Lennox-Zepp said there's no proof the tactic actually works.She said police shouldn't have the power to stop someone who hasn't committed any wrongdoing.

The matter also needs to be looked at by the budget committee, according to Lennox-Zepp.

Access to public parks at night in Prince Albert is already restricted by a city bylaw. That bylaw states signage, indicating when the public can access those areas, must be in place.

Lennox-Zeppsaid the proposed curfew would require similar signage for every back alley and walkway.

"We don't know how many thousands of dollars that would cost."

The city's budget committee and council has not finalized details about the costs associated with the proposal.

Zurakowski, who put forth the motion, could not be reached for comment.

Prince Albert's Mayor Greg Dionne was unavailable before deadline.

Proposed bylaw similar to parks bylaw: Police Chief

Prince Albert Police Service Chief Jon Bergen cited the city's parks bylaw when talking about the proposed regulation to back alleys and walkways.

He said he's not concerned about people's ethnicity playing a role in police interactions.

"[The issue of carding] could come up there, and it hasn't," Bergen said.

"When we investigate somebody that we recognize to be involved in suspicious activity, we investigate that person. Often, we don't know the ethnicity of that person until we're well into the investigation."

While the process is still in it's very early stages, Bergen said he imagines the bylaw wouldn't make it unlawful for people who own property that backs onto an alley or walkway to access those areas.

Police introduce other initiatives to tackle property crime

According to the most recent numbers published by the Prince Albert Police Service,property crimes saw a 12.75 per cent increase over last year.

There have been 1,875 instances of property crime in the city so far this year.

On Wednesday the Prince Albert Police Service launched a high-priority task force aimed at solving break and enters and reducing property crimes.

Bergen said the task force will focus on analyzing trends and patterns behind property crime, while investigating break and enters to arrest suspects and return stolen property.

"If you can solve the root cause of crime then you're likely to have a longer impact in reducing that crime," Bergen said of the task force's focus on finding patterns to property crime.