In his second State of the City Address, Mayor Josh Morgan reiterated his support for a massive increase to the police budget, which will require an increase in property taxes. That came after the rise of crimes around the city. The meeting also highlighted advancements in the city’s homelessness strategy and new housing initiatives.
“Students should be very concerned about our city’s state of public safety,” Morgan says. “As it is right now, London is not a safe city anymore.”
He says that the type of crime that they are seeing the most is increased violent crime and challenges with traffic enforcement. He also adds that community officers are not patrolling neighbourhoods and are being under-resourced in human trafficking and child exploitation.
“We will have a budget debate through February, but by the end of February. After that, Londoners will start to see the changes implemented by the London Police Service,” Morgan says.
During the meeting, the mayor showed statistics from the crime severity index. The crime severity index is one tool to look at and measure crime occurring in the municipality.
“That showed that London is the third most dangerous city compared to Ontario’s 12 biggest cities,” says Chief of London Police Thai Truong. “Serious crimes are occurring, and the rate and frequency in which those crimes are happening are alarming.“
Truong adds that in the last three years, they have had more shootings in this city than ever before.
“We are not safe right now. Safety is at an all-time low. We got a lot of work to do,” Truong says.
To finance 189 additional posts, expedite response times, provide cops with better gear and vehicles, and update policing technologies, Truong has requested $672 million spread over four years.
Fanshawe College president Peter Devlin says that it is “realistically alarming” the city’s safety.
“I believe that the mayor talked honestly about the City’s challenges,” says Devlin. “We are working closely with the London Police Service to create a safe environment for Londoners and our students.
Devlin says that the college also has a department that looks after the health and safety of Fanshawe College students.
“The mayor’s speech was realistic by saying that London was not a safe city anymore,” Devlin says.
He adds that the college looks forward to the enhancements discussed in the meeting and believes that Fanshawe will be part of those enhancements.
Watch below for more details:
Comments