THUNDER BAY — The city's police chief is urging businesses dealing with any type of trouble to not be shy about calling it in.
“You may not get [an immediate] physical response, but you might get it [in a few days or] down the road depending on what [the call is about],” Chief Darcy Fleury said in remarks to local business leaders on Tuesday.
“For us to have information is really important. Why that's important is maybe it's the same person that you're calling about day after day, but that might help us [down the road with] information that we may need.”
Fleury, serving as keynote speaker for the Chamber of Commerce’s latest Leaders Luncheon event at the Slovak Legion, called that part of an overall strategy by the force to do more listening.
“As far as enforcement goes, we want people to feel safe, be able to go out and enjoy themselves in the community [while visiting] the different markets and stores,” Fleury said. “I need input to see what they're facing and what we can do to.”
Chamber president Charla Robinson asked the chief a few questions during the event, and was pleasantly surprised to hear that businesses are encouraged to call in their concerns no matter how small they appear to be.
“For many years, business owners have been told, please don't call 911 if you have someone hanging around your business that's maybe intoxicated, sleeping or harassing your patrons, instead call the SOS. Well, we don't have the SOS anymore,” Robinson said. “And so that's a new message from [the police] so now the chamber can help to communicate that [message] to our business community.”
The Shelter House stopped operating the Street Outreach Service (SOS) program in September 2022 over a lack of sustainable funding. The program provided outreach services to Thunder Bay residents who are homeless or vulnerably housed.
Robinson said Tuesday she is aware of conversations around plans to support vulnerable residents through the winter, but details have not been publicly released.
Fleury said it’s too early to pinpoint one specific issue from the business community, with conversations ongoing.
Fleury was the first external Thunder Bay police chief hire in 28 years, and was sworn into the job in May.
