Photo: Samantha Holomay

The City of Trail is considering ramping up law enforcement services in the city to help address issues with the city’s vulnerable population.

Trail's general manager of corporate services has suggested implementing one of three remedies to increase support for the city's bylaw enforcement officer, and parking metre assistant by providing more weekend officer coverage.

• One weekend part-time position at the cost of $66,750.
• A full-time position weekend bylaw position at the cost of $109,000
• Hiring private security coverage at the cost of $55,000

The city currently employs a bylaw enforcement officer and a parking meter attendant from Monday to Friday, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The BEO duties include building rapport with the area’s vulnerable populations in addition to addressing animal control complaints. The city has estimated that the current officer is spending over half their allotted time addressing these matters.

The PMA is tasked with enforcing the city’s traffic bylaws in and around the downtown core and spends an estimated 20-30 per cent of their time interacting with the city’s vulnerable populations.

City staff have said that the amount of time officers spend on one issue has impeded their productivity in other areas such as unsightly premises calls and animal control.

The report highlighted some of the cons of each consideration, citing that if the city were to hire a part-time bylaw officer it may be difficult to find a part-time staff member working every weekend. In addition, there may not be enough apart from dealing with the vulnerable population to justify a 10-hour shift.

The report noted that there may be limitations accompanying hiring a part-time bylaw officer, explaining that the employee would mostly work alone, and problems could still arise before or after their shift. In addition, a private security company may not be equipped to work with vulnerable populations.

In April 2024, the city spent $5,930 to hire Selkirk Security Services to help assist weekend patrol when problems surfaced with encampments at Jubilee Park. Although this quelled the issues at hand for the time being, the remedy did not address other issues that arose in the city’s downtown area.

These considerations will be presented to the City of Trail council during the next meeting scheduled for March 24.