Downtown nuisance infractions on the rise

By Joel Wittnebel/The Oshawa Express

A partnership between city bylaw and the Durham police has led to an astronomical rise in the amount of nuisance investigations throughout the city over the past year.

With the annual report for the Department of Municipal Law Enforcement and Licensing Services presented at the most recent meeting of the corporate services committee, councillors learned that as a result of responding to approximately 14,500 calls in 2016 – a 27 per cent increase over the previous year – MLELS achieved a 99-per-cent compliance rate within the city’s core areas of enforcement, those being property, parking and animal related bylaws.

And while the department dealt with 91 per cent more calls relating to the city’s boulevard bylaw, mostly attributed to garbage being left out, and a 58-per-cent increase in adequate heat complaints, there was a much larger increase that caught the eyes of councillors.

When it came to the city’s nuisance bylaw, MLELS saw 73 per cent more calls (266 on the year, well above the three-year average of 154), and the department saw a 249-per-cent bump in activity related to these types of complaints. In total, 1,196 complaints or investigations were undertaken by MLELS related to nuisance activities over the last year, far above the three-year average of 343.

Currently, the city’s nuisance bylaw includes a number of things that could be classified as a nuisance, including soliciting, littering, loitering, drinking in public, fighting or screaming, spitting, vandalism, “or any other activity or conduct that is disorderly, annoying, unpleasant or obnoxious.”

Following a request from Councillor Rick Kerr for an explanation on the massive increase, it was explained the jump can be predominatly attributed to a partnership program with the Durham Region Police Service, mostly around the downtown area.

”There were projects in the downtown regarding drinking alcohol in open areas, there could be drug activity on public lands and things like that. Those are the things we were encountering down in the creek areas and parks,” says Jerry Conlin, the director of MLELS,

Conlin notes that the steep increase does not necessarily mean the city experienced a rash of nuisance complaints in the last year, but could simply be due to the increased enforcement.

“When the complaints elevate to a certain level, we’ll work on projects with other groups and do a little more proactive enforcement,” Conlin says.

The penalty under the nuisance bylaw is a $250 fine. However, penalties can increase to over $500 for subsequent offences.