Since becoming Chief of Police in 2022, Eric Stubbs and the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) have been working to implement a new strategy for policing one of Ottawa’s most significant areas, the ByWard Market, which serves as a cultural and entertainment hub in the city. Under Stubbs’s plan, a more community-based approach with more foot patrols and targeted policing will address the issues that have made the ByWard Market area one of the most high-crime areas in the City of Ottawa.
The initiative, known as the “CORE strategy,” is the culmination of several years of research aimed at tackling the issues in ByWard Market and Lowertown. Implementation of the CORE Strategy began rolling out in late spring.
Following the opening of a police hub in the Rideau Centre in partnership with the Shepherds of Good Hope, the OPS has released a new report identifying eight “hot spots” in the ByWard Market and Lowertown area. The move comes along with various initiatives being taken on the civic side of ByWard Market governance, including reorganizing the ByWard Market Business Improvement area into the ByWard Market District Authority and the introduction of the block leaders program in the summer of 2023, an initiative aimed at supporting individuals who are unhoused or use drugs by enlisting members of this community to serve as peer mentors.
The eight hot spots are targets for more heavy policing to address crime and social disorder in the area. The strategy has received mixed reviews from across the city’s political spectrum. Previously, activists spoke at the Ottawa Police Services Board, calling the efforts to bring a more presence-based policing system to the ByWard Market a “violation of human rights.”
Despite what could be described as a stereotypical reaction from the activists of the city, local businesses are not all happy with the current plan either. Although some, including FrouFrou Boutique owner Pat Phythian, did tell CTV news that they were pleased with the increased police foot patrols, which bring a sense of safety. For years, other merchants have appealed to the area councillor and Mayor Mark Sutcliffe to improve the conditions in Ottawa’s historic centre. A 2021 letter outlined their frustration with the city’s lack of response to illegal activities and vagrancy.
Phil Emond of Gordon Harrison Canadian Landscape Gallery wrote in an email to Ottawa Life, “We are the National Capital, and we need more action than what is being done now to ensure our businesses are successful and residents and visitors are safe again and the ByWard Market a place that continues to attract people worldwide.” Emond and other retailers continue to be frustrated by basic issues like a lack of available parking and By-Law officers who only function to ticket cars and have no power to address community issues, including harassing or threatening behaviour and the illegal use of hard drugs in the streets.
Sgt Paul Stam of the OPS spoke with CRFA on Thursday about the new strategy, telling Ottawa At Work host Patricia Boal that the OPS approach with the new operations centre is fundamentally one based on a communal approach by developing a frontline task force that has weekly meetings to discuss issues in the market and meet with community engagement teams, paramedics, public health, and By-Law. Stam stated, “We want to work together as one team to make sure that we address these problems wherever they pop up.”
The OPS initiative represents a much-anticipated first step, yet with numerous vacant shops on Sussex Street, merchants and restaurateurs can only hope it’s not a case of too little, too late, and that patrons will feel secure enough to return to the ByWard Market.
The hotspots identified by the Ottawa Police Service are visible in the image provided below.
