Mission Crime Prevention Office (CPO) coordinator Rimmi Purewal shared a presentation at Copper Hall on April 18 as part of the Downtown Business Association’s Speaker Series.
Purewal spoke about Safety and Security in Mission and touched on topics including target hardening, how to identify suspicious behaviour, taking notes, how to prepare to call the police, and road safety in the downtown core.
Purewal said the majority of downtown complaints received by Mission RCMP do not involve criminal activity.
“Not that it doesn’t involve criminal activity — just not a lot. Most of the calls are for a suspicious person or suspicious vehicle or maybe a suspicious occurrence,” she said.
When reporting a crime or contacting Mission RCMP, Purewal outlined the benefits of taking notes and building habits of observation.
“If we notice something we’re observing, we tend to document it so that the next person is aware of it as well and if we need to call the police, at least we have notes of what’s going on. So training yourself to be aware of your surroundings at all times is a very valuable skill,” Purewal said.
For downtown businesses, Purewal said maintaining the property is crucial for crime prevention.
“It’s important to keep your respective property well-maintained to signal that it is actually cared for and monitored,” she said.
According to Purewal, excessive speeding is a common concern for downtown businesses — especially on First Avenue.
The CPO has a variety of initiatives to address road safety, including a speed watch and cell phone watch.
“What I’ve learned over the four years that I’ve been here on First Avenue is that the loud trucks and the loud mufflers on vehicles — or even motorbikes — the noise doesn’t help,” she said.
The CPO’s speed watch initiative hasn’t been able to generate enough data to say that speed is an issue.
During the last speed watch, only one vehicle was noted for speeding at 52 km/h in a 40 km/h zone. Purewal says CPO signage also provides a deterrent for speeding on First Avenue.
“I’m not saying that there isn’t speeding, I’m just saying that when we set up, we did not catch it,” she said.
For cell watch, the CPO has observed over 3,000 vehicles over the last three months and issued 15 letters for distracted driving.
The next presentation in the DBA’s Speaker Series is slated for May 16 at Copper Hall from 2-4 p.m. Odlum Brown and Kevin Wainwright will speak on the state of the economy.
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