Sault Ste. Marie Police Service and Victim Services of Algoma hosted a community barbecue at Division 2 on Monday to celebrate the launch of the police substation downtown.
The substation at 180 Brock St. currently houses a staff sergeant and four constables with the Division 2 Unit, in addition to officers with traffic services and staff with the police service’s central support bureau.
Crime Stoppers of Sault Ste. Marie & Algoma District and the Collision Reporting Centre will also have offices inside the building once they transition from Sault Police headquarters on Second Line East.
“It's been a long time coming and we're proud to see it finally take shape down here,” said Sault Ste. Marie Police Service Interim Chief Brent Duguay in his opening remarks.
“It's going to be important for the downtown to have that consistent presence.”
Division 2 is currently not accessible to the public, despite officially kicking off its operations in the city’s downtown core late last month.
“We're just waiting for some of those communication features at the front door so we can get that open to the public, at which time we'll have it staffed and we'll be able to take walk-ins,” Duguay said.
The budget for renovations to 180 Brock St. is approximately $850,000, with the police service awaiting the final costing on all the work that’s been completed to date.
As previously reported by SooToday, Division 2 has experienced several construction and shipping delays since the downtown police substation was first unveiled to the public in June of last year.
Sault Police Insp. Derek Dewar was on hand Monday in order to provide members of the local media with a brief tour of the roughly 8,400 square-foot facility, which is nearing completion.
“It was important for us to let the community know all the work that had been done by officers,” Dewar told reporters inside Division 2.
“We have a downtown presence now — officers dedicated to downtown.
“I'm sure everybody's aware of the last few years we've had dynamic patrol over the summer. This will be a permanent version of that.”
Officers at Division 2 have been “walking the beat” and introducing themselves to store owners downtown, according to the city’s interim police chief.
So far, officers have performed 28 hours of beat time and have made 15 arrests since the launch of Division 2 last month. Nine provincial offences tickets and a pair of bylaw tickets were also issued within that same time frame.
There are 17 officers in all currently working at Division 2, including a high school liaison and a community support officer for the police service.
Victim Services of Algoma has also recently moved into the building.
Executive director Jasmine Savoie told reporters that the new location will assist the organization in its goal of raising awareness for victims and survivors of crimes such as human trafficking, intimate partner violence and homicide.
Savoie added that the number of victims of human trafficking in the Algoma District coming to Victim Services has tripled with a caseload of approximately 140.
“The building itself is not open to the public yet, but we think that having more of a central location is better for the downtown core,” Savoie said.
“We can meet a lot more people in their own environment. A lot of people live down in this area and frequent the downtown core.”
The community barbecue held outside of Division 2 also served as a kickoff to both Police Week and Victims and Survivors of Crime Week.