The Downtown Business Association hosted a community forum Thursday, with the aim of sharing safety concerns in the downtown area and discussing possible solutions.
A survey in May found the number of people who feel safe in downtown Edmonton had increased by 20 per cent since 2010.
However, crime is still a major issue.
“We wanted to get people together here today to really address some of those issues and find out where those gaps are,” Ian O’Donnell with the Downtown Business Association said.
Statistics from the Edmonton Police Service show 78 per cent of assaults reported in the city happened downtown, or in a surrounding neighbourhood.
“We’ve been making really good progress with a lot of crime indicators,” O’Donnell said.
“But we’re not there yet.”
People attending the forum discussed ways to improve safety in the area.
“I’m here today because I feel like it’s important for me as a mom who lives downtown and is raising my child downtown to come to a security forum,” resident Rachel Jones said.
The discussion covered a number of factors including policing in the core and increased foot traffic.
Ideas generated here will be forwarded to all three levels of government, in the hopes of forming new policy.
With files from Timm Bruch
