Safety co-ordinator says more needs to be done in Pleasant Hill

The Pleasant Hill neighbourhood in Saskatoon has seen an increasing number of violent crimes this month.

Shane Partridge is the Pleasant Hill Community Association’s safety co-ordinator. He was threatened with a shotgun last week.

He said the blame for these incidents is often misplaced.

“The first thought I had after that happened was, ‘I hope people don’t blame the individual for this,’ ” he said. “Being high on meth, having accessibility to firearms … those are the culprits, those are the ones to blame here.”

He thinks that governments and police need to work together with community leaders to address these issues.

He’s not happy that the changes suggested in an emergency meeting following a similar crime spree in March weren’t put in place.

“We’ve done all this work in the community, we came up with a gang strategy, we have a plan for that. All of these initiatives that the community has taken on, the government has failed to act on,” he said.

Partridge said this inaction comes from many places.

“From the municipal government to the police to the provincial government and the federal government, there’s not one single ministry or level of government that has clean hands in all this,” he said.

“It’s going to take everybody to come up with an efficient solution.”

He said community outreach and more drug addiction treatment centres are needed steps towards lowering crime in Pleasant Hill.

Municipal government responds

In a media statement, Mayor Charlie Clark echoed Partridge’s calls to work together.

“These issues require a co-ordinated approach, and the City is working with community partners on a four-pillar strategy that looks at enforcement, (drug) supply reduction, treatment, and prevention,” he wrote.

Ward 2 Coun. Hilary Gough said the city’s solutions to the crime and addiction issues are still being worked on.

“There have been lots of surveys and ideas and co-operations to figure out what more needs to happen,” she said. “That planning work is happening.”

Gough said she alone doesn’t have the qualifications to decide what actions to take in solving Pleasant Hill’s issues.

“My job is to hear from the folks who have the expertise,” she said. “It would be irresponsible of me to present the solutions to a problem that I am not an expert in.”