Trash-can dumpers dominate downtown crime during first month of city-hired private security

A rash of overturned and ransacked garbage bins accounted for more than 40 per cent of occurrence reports filed by N1 Solutions Inc. during the first month of its city contract to provide private security downtown.

"It's been about a month that we've been running the project right now," Sonny Spina, N1's managing director of security told a meeting of the Downtown Association's board this week.

"The one glaring trend that we have seen is this garbage trend, where people are going into the garbage cans and just taking everything out and dumping it on the street, on the parking lot, on the sidewalk and moving on," Spina said. 

"I went out to a few locations. It literally appeared that someone had intentionally brought some garbage bins to a parking lot – one of the local businesses – and just dumped garbage in their back parking lot and left it there."

"Other sites had the appearance that someone is going through them looking for something. It's really impossible for us to tell what a person's intent is while they're doing it."

"There's been a few cases where it looks like someone brought cans from Albert Street back toward Queen Street to parking lots that back onto Albert Street, and just dumped them in the parking lot. I'm not really sure what one's intent would be behind that. And then there's other ones where it's just dumped right there beside the can." 

Most of the trash-dumping activity appears to be happening between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m.

N1 quickly pivoted its shifts to ensure those hours were adequately covered.

The security company is now working to locate geographical hotspots for the activity.

"Our staff has done a total of 63 reports relating to the downtown patrols," Spina said.

"About 42 per cent of those reports have been directly related to people going through garbage cans and leaving the garbage on the roads, whether it's right on Queen Street or in the back alleyways."

Spina said N1 Solution patrols have so far not encountered the perpetrators in action.

"We want to be able to track over time where these things are happening so we can focus our patrols better."

In the meantime, Spina recommended that trash bins be locked down whenever possible.

The city has retained N1 for a six-month pilot project, with extension options up to one year.

The Downtown Association is paying a small part of the yearly expense. Municipal ratepayers cover the rest.

Spina said slightly under 10 per cent of the downtown reports prepared by N1 involve needles found and disposed of during patrols.

He was asked what business owners should do if they find a needle on their property.

"The very best tool I've ever come across in my experience for helping to remove needles has been cheap barbecue tongs. They allow you the ability to grab them, put them into the box safely."

"You never have to touch them. They go into a secure container that they won't spill out of. Then we can bring them to a pharmacy or someone to appropriately dispose of them." 

The remaining downtown reports, about 50 per cent of N1's total for the past month, are general descriptions, often about checking businesses to ensure they're secure.

There was one report about vandalism. Spina didn't have details on that at this week's Downtown Association meeting.

N1 has installed 11 RFID (radio frequency identification) tags downtown to ensure patrols are visiting spots considered important.

Spina reported that so far, those tags have been scanned just under 600 times. 

In other news, Downtown Association director Kelly Walker is resigning from the board.