OTTAWA -- Members of the Coalition of Community Health and Resource Centres of Ottawa are ‘Rethinking Community Safety.’

The CCHRC has released a report titled "Rethinking Community Safety in Ottawa" in the wake of growing concerns about racism and policing.

The report “identifies a wide range of opportunities that Ottawa City Council can pursue to better apply existing spending to improve community safety.”

“We began this project because we, like many, were concerned about the impact of sending police to address situations that are fundamentally social issues,” says Luc Ouellette, the executive director of the Orléans Cumberland Community Resource Centre.

The report avoids the use of the phrase “defund police.” Instead, it focuses on how to keep Ottawa safe.

It points out the increase in the Ottawa Police budget of almost $50 million dollars from 2015 to 2019.

“Rather than focusing on policing as a way out of social issues, our community could invest more appropriately at less cost to get better outcomes,” says Anita James, of the Nepean Rideau Cumberland Community Resource Centre.

“Ottawa has an abundance of organizations that offer services that are more effective at responding to issues related to homelessness, mental health, violence against women, and the communities around them, at a fraction of the cost of policing,” James said, adding that most of the time it is safe to send them instead.

“According to the Ottawa Police Service’s 2019 annual report, police took reports of any kind in less than half (43%) of the calls in attended,” she says. “Only one in six involved any criminal activity, and only one in sixty involved a crime in progress of any ongoing violent act; over 90 per cent of calls are safe to send unarmed people to respond.”

A copy of the report will be sent to council, according to a spokesperson.