The town of Smithers is looking into hiring a new Community Safety Officer.
This comes after the town was awarded the Northern Healthy Communities Grant to support hiring an additional Community Safety Officer to address bylaw services in the community.
This new position will provide support for community safety initiatives, bylaw enforcement, and liaise with businesses and stakeholders to identify neighbourhood and downtown strategies.
The new Community Safety Officer position will provide needed additional capacity to the Town of Smithers Bylaw Enforcement Services concerning the increasing homeless population in the community.
Mayor Gladys Atrill said the Town knows there is a need for additional people power to support both the regular bylaw enforcement duties, community policing liaison, and the community safety impacts from the homeless encampment at Veterans Peace Park.
“We have one community safety officer, and that person has multiple duties, bylaw enforcement, looking after safety issues, so there’s more than one set of priorities for that individual,” said Mayor Gladys Atrill. “And we’ve been dealing with people who are living vicariously, living unhoused and some other issues that we’ve been facing in the last couple of years. So the ability to have a second community safety officer will be helpful.”
A press release from the town stated the new Community Safety Officer position will help to reduce the impact on local law enforcement resources by creating positive, proactive support, with a focus on vulnerable persons, to prevent problematic social behaviours along with addressing health and safety concerns.
This grant funding will provide support by having staff liaise with the RCMP and support service agencies for local vulnerable and homeless populations.
“I think people would like to see more enforcement in some areas, more focused on community safety,” added Atrill.
“So this is going to be able to help us. We’re not going to solve everything. But we’ll be able to inch forward a little faster.”
The funding for the new Community Safety Officer position has been granted for three years starting in 2024. The posting for the position is now open.