Changes at 51 Div. CPLC

By Vanessa Magness –

Why get involved in community policing? Let’s see. It’s a venue for information exchange between my neighbours and the police. A chance for a good bitch session. It’s an opportunity to publicize policing strategies to the community. A chance for cop wannabees to sit closer to the sun (once a month). It’s an opportunity for community-minded neighbours to build strategies to strengthen their neighbourhoods against criminal activity. A chance for ambitious politicos to tart up the community activist section of the ole’ CV…I’ve heard it all.

In November a new executive committee was elected to the 51-Division Community Police Liaison Committee, or CPLC. I am the cochair, along with Superintendent Jeff McGuire. I’m interested in seeing this organization move forward, and I’m less concerned with what it is that brings individuals to the table than with what we can accomplish once we’re there. I have begun the process of going out to the individual member organizations (there are about 25 of them) to find out what the community wants.

Let us know what we’re doing well, and what we’re doing poorly. If there are things we should be doing, or should be doing better, I’d like to know. I’ve met with three organizations so far, and the feedback has been both candid, and constructive. I want the CPLC to eventually address the needs of the entire 51 Division. This division goes from Bloor St. to the shoreline, and from the Don River to Yonge St., so it’s a pretty diverse community, and what is important in the St. Lawrence Neighbourhood might not be important in St. Jamestown, or the Upper Jarvis district.

Maybe we need to have better communication between the member organizations and the CPLC. Maybe policing issues need to be handled differently within the organizations. This is something for you to discuss amongst yourselves, and let us know.

My goal is to expand the membership of the CPLC, though not necessarily right away. First things first. I’d like to determine the relevance of the organization to the current members, assess the general feeling about the level and nature of communication, and establish some measurable goals.

Then we can work to make the organization bigger.

This planning process will take many weeks, because it takes time to gather the kind of information we need from a geographical area as large as this one. My objective is to take your information back to the executive so that we can develop a strategy that will align the CPLC goals with those of the community at large. So this information gathering session is a planning tool for us, where us means the CPLC executive.

However, Staff-Sergeant Frank Bergen has told me that he wants to know what the Community Response Unit can be doing better.

So your feedback could end up feeding into their own strategizing, which should be good for all of us who live or work in these neighbourhoods. Email me at vmangess@ryerson.ca and I’ll share that with the new executive committee members listed below.

Co-chair Supt. Jeff McGuire (Commander, 51 Div.), Co-chair Dr. Vanessa Magness (Cabbagetown South Residents Assoc.), Vice-chair Ron Monteith (St. Lawrence Community Rec. Centre), Treasurer Deb Devgan (Gooderham & Worts Neighbourhood Assoc.), Secretary Audrey Burton (Upper Jarvis Neighbourhood Assoc.), Community Mobilization Bob Fisher (Church/Wellesley City Park Co-op).