July-August 2001

Police Issues

Some of the summer school students have a friend with a car and a loud car radio. When summer school started at St.Mary's, they adopted the habit of parking the car outside the school at 2.30 and playing loud music until 4.30-5. They sit at a picnic table nearby. Their music can be heard, very well, all over the park and all over the neighbourhood. Although for many young people such music is more beautiful than birdsong, it is not so for the people living nearby. Residents have complained to the park staff. Since this car is parked in a no parking zone, if the music continues, the police can be called and can issue tickets for illegal parking.

However, sometimes calling the police can create other problems. In early June, for example, when an argument between two female high school students ended in one stabbing the other in the shoulder with her manicure scissors, there was a huge police presence in the park as well as the neighbourhood for a few weeks. This meant a lot of cruisers driving through the park, sometimes very quickly, sometimes after dark. There was also an occasion when police came to the park because a young woman was said to be suicidal. Two cruisers and an ambulance drove up beside the playground to investigate. Then one of the cruisers got a call for a bank robbery, and so it suddenly drove so fast up the Gladstone footpath that clouds of dust were raised. On that occasion there were some frightened park users, fearing that our park is becoming unsafe for pedestrians.

This run of traffic in the park culminated one day three weeks ago in the arrival of a plain white car driving slowly around the grassed area near the basketball courts. The park staff at first thought it was a tourist car that was lost, but when they pointed out to the driver that cars were not permitted in the park, the driver said he intended to continue driving around. This gentleman looked youthful and had braces on his teeth, and the park staff considered calling the police. But then they noticed that the car had safety glass dividing the inside and that it was evidently a police car. The driver said he and his colleague had to drive around in the park that way to protect citizens against crime.

Since then, police traffic in the park has been less. Soon, a call for police assistance to deal with the loud music may be necessary. But in the interests of not creating more cruiser traffic inside the park again, Jutta Mason sent a warning first. She asked one of the music lovers to communicate to his friends that the music was too loud and too long, and that if it doesn't stop, police will be called. The short-term result was that the car drove away. Sometime just a warning is enough. If the loud music returns and the all-afternoon party starts again, the person to call is Sgt.Bob Guglick of Fourteen Division Community Response, 416/808-1500.