Leslieville, their eyes are on you

By Richard Holt –

Leslieville is becoming a safer place for residents thanks to a neighbourhood watch group.

Local resident Kathy Korimsek has revived the Leslieville neighbourhood watch chapter. The reason, she says, is to bring people in the community together and talk about important issues and how they can resolve them. She first noticed residents’ concerns about illegal activity in the neighbourhood while in the Leslieville neighbourhood Yahoo! group. “People exchange information and ideas on the site and I saw that a lot of people were concerned about things in the neighbourhood so I said, ‘let’s have a meeting and talk about it.’ There is drugs and prostitution in the neighbourhood and it’s almost like the neighbourhood has been under siege.”

She continues, “We’ve had a number of community meetings since last summer and have worked together since then and had a lot of meetings with Paula Fletcher’s office. We did some neighbourhood walks and checked some safety issues and it’s really improved. We have really good communication with 55 division. They’ve been really helpful and have stepped up patrols in the area.”

Working with the Leslieville neighbourhood watch group is the Crime Prevention Association of Toronto (CPAT). CPAT is a non-profit organization that educates businesses and residents to help reduce the risk of being a victim of crime. “We work hand-in hand with CPAT,” says Korimsek. “They are really key in getting information to us. We then send it around to people in our neighbourhood to let them know what’s been going on.”

Elizabeth Hurley is the executive director of CPAT and explains their involvement with the Leslieville Group. “Leslieville had some concerns about what was going on and contacted 55 division and us and we talked about some of the programs we offer. What we do is we get break and enter information, street car and street robbery information from 55 division and then we pass out the pertinent information to them. If, for example, there was a break and enter we would tell the neighbourhood watch group via phone or email what street it happened on, how the person tried to break in. If the robber used a ladder to break in we would recommend people ensure they put their ladders away.”

“We are definitely a partnership with Leslieville,” she continues. “We want the community to be better informed, call the police more often and get to know each other because that will reduce crime. If there is a high-witness potential in a neighbourhood there is less chance of a crime taking place.”

Korimsek wishes there was more interest in the group but has big plans to increase awareness. “Right now we are telling people of the group through Leslieville Yahoo! and by word of mouth. We hope to have a town hall meeting with an upcoming community police liason committee meeting. At these town hall meetings there is a Q & A at the end and this is a very good opportunity to inform people of the neighbourhoood watch group.”