Neighbourhood groups working on the front lines with the most vulnerable people in Saint John have grave concerns about the loss of community policing.
The service is among the devastating cuts in the police budget.
Barry Galloway of O.N.E. Change tells us it has taken years to build the trust they have with the community police officer.
Galloway tells recently they dealt with an issue where a child may have been followed and he says the officer immediately put the child at ease.
Galloway says when he was finished speaking to the child, he felt better about what happened and he knew he handled it properly by doing all the right things and how to protect himself in the future.
The North end’s community police officer has been Constable James Whelan.
Lots of praise for community policing at the Neighbourhood’s news conference pic.twitter.com/HhHWIhDKEQ
— Randy Hatfield (@randyhatfield) December 20, 2017
Nadhim Mansoor works in Newcomer Development at the Crescent Valley Resource Centre.
He tells us the Syrian famillies are coming from terrible situations and afraid of the police but working with Constable Jocelyn McLean changed that.
He says in a very short time she was able to build trust even with a language barrier.
Mansoor tells us they fear without having this officer in place they will have more crime and more drug dealers.
