Ottawa police still scoping out locations for ByWard Market setup

Ottawa police are still looking for the ideal location for a police hub in the ByWard Market, but it has yet to be found.

Mayor Mark Sutcliffe campaigned on a promise to open a community resource centre in the ByWard Market.

Ottawa police chief Eric Stubbs told reporters on Monday that the Ottawa Police Service is looking at several options for where such a storefront police hub could be.

"The location is key. We do have some options available to us. Some of them may not be as accessible," he said. "I think people want to see that there's a location that they can go to, that our officers, when they're working can go to and bring people to as well."

Stubbs didn't say how long it might take to establish such a presence in the market, described as a bricks-and-mortar, forward-facing neighbourhood operations centre.

In the meantime, Stubbs said efforts are underway to address crime in the ByWard Market this summer.

"We're doing a number of things. We have the Market Safe initiative; we have more officers working Thursday and Friday nights, particularly in the late hours to try to suppress any violence that has occurred around the bar district and we're working with city hall on a number of initiatives," Stubbs said.

Some of those initiatives involve meeting with city teams that work with vulnerable populations, such as homeless people.

"We are also independently working with a number of NGOs in the area, trying to focus on those people that are doing one of two things, causing the most problems in the area or need the most help," he said.

"All of those initiatives are something that we're developing and we'll be building on as we establish those relationships with some of the NGOs, working more with city hall, we think we'll be in a better place as time progresses."

Rideau-Vanier ward, which contains the ByWard Market, had the second-highest crime rate in the city in 2022, with 13,433 crimes per 100,000 people, according to OPS statistics. Only the nearby Somerset ward was higher, with a rate of 15,162 crimes per 100,000 population. Police said 2022 saw an 18 per cent increase in reported crimes across the city, and a 6 per cent increase in violent crimes.

--With files from CTV News Ottawa's Josh Pringle.