B
Brighter Hell
Guest
Fear at Fort Apache, Toronto
Apr. 21, 2006. 07:34 AM
ROYSON JAMES
They're ugly as hell, a towering eyesore and a costly addition to the Toronto landscape.
And whatever good they do, the 2.4-metre-high cedar fences being erected around Toronto police stations do not portray a positive image of a police force that's there to serve and protect — one that is an open, accessible presence in our neighbourhoods.
For $3.7 million, the Toronto Police Service is building a fortress around its stations, turning them into barracks just when the force says it is strengthening its connections with the community. And the police board and city council approve of the outlay, even as police spending continues to consume 25 per cent of the property taxes we pay.
"This project addresses site security deficiencies and enhances officer safety by: upgrading existing fencing to an acceptable standard; installing new fencing, where required, to an acceptable standard; installing automatic gates to parking areas; and integrating the gate system(s) into the existing security system to provide service personnel secure access; and installing appropriate signage."
That's the official explanation in the 2006 budget document. Already $1.8 million has been spent around stations like the one at Trethewey and Black Creek Drs. — a monstrosity that all but eclipses the view of the station from busy Black Creek.
This year, another $915,000 is slated for other divisions, $400,000 is to be spent next year and more than half a million dollars in 2008.
If these walls had esthetic qualities, they might be tolerable. A cedar wall is great for my backyard fence; it is not what one might expect of our public institutions on major streets.
According to the explanation from police headquarters, the fencing will protect the personal vehicles of our police officers; keep out vandals; block the view of gangstas who might want to camp out in grassy knolls overlooking the stations and pick off gang rivals being brought into the stations by police; prevent hackers from tapping into police data. That last one is a bit suspect, but we won't quibble.
To the average citizen, this smacks of a siege mentality.
If parking one's personal vehicle in a police division parking lot is such a dangerous activity for police across Toronto, someone forgot to tell the public. You'd think the police are capable of policing their own property. And if they are not, we are all in serious danger.
What the police are telling us is their officers are afraid, so they want us to build them cedar fences to protect their property.
They have video surveillance on their property, they have a building full of cops as backup, they have the full resources of the law, and yet they need a wooden fence behind which to freely operate?
Imagine, then, the kind of security provision the average citizen might need to insulate him or herself from nuisances and vandals and troublemakers. For instance, if I were to provide information to the police on a gunman in hiding, as I would dutifully do, what kind of protection might I be requesting?
"There's an obligation on any employer to take reasonable steps to provide for employee safety," police spokesman Mark Pugash says. Yes, police can and do arrest the perpetrators, "but the fact they're police officers doesn't remove the obligation to provide safety."
Yes. And police already have some protections. They are allowed to register their personal vehicles to the 40 College St. police headquarters address so that would-be criminals cannot trace their home address by checking their licence plate against transportation ministry data.
This kind of barrier is overkill.
I don't begrudge the police any safety tool required to do the job. Give them tasers, bazookas even. I'd vote to furnish police with a helicopter. But the reasons given for this expenditure are weak, very weak.
Several stations are getting a makeover over the next few years and some are being rebuilt. For example, in Rexdale, a new station is going up at Kipling and Finch Aves. It's a welcome sight for anyone who wants a police presence, a friendly and open and accessible and attractive place.
It would be a travesty and a tragedy to erect these ghastly fences along Finch or Kipling. What the area needs is architectural and street-level enhancement, not the walled indifference of privacy-consumed suburbia.
There are many pleasing ways to design a parking lot to limit unwanted intruders. Landscape architects will gladly respond.
Robert Frost wasn't talking about our neighbourhood police station when he wrote, "Good fences make good neighbours." These fences are neither good nor neighbourly.
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Royson James usually appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Email: rjames@thestar.ca.
Apr. 21, 2006. 07:34 AM
ROYSON JAMES
They're ugly as hell, a towering eyesore and a costly addition to the Toronto landscape.
And whatever good they do, the 2.4-metre-high cedar fences being erected around Toronto police stations do not portray a positive image of a police force that's there to serve and protect — one that is an open, accessible presence in our neighbourhoods.
For $3.7 million, the Toronto Police Service is building a fortress around its stations, turning them into barracks just when the force says it is strengthening its connections with the community. And the police board and city council approve of the outlay, even as police spending continues to consume 25 per cent of the property taxes we pay.
"This project addresses site security deficiencies and enhances officer safety by: upgrading existing fencing to an acceptable standard; installing new fencing, where required, to an acceptable standard; installing automatic gates to parking areas; and integrating the gate system(s) into the existing security system to provide service personnel secure access; and installing appropriate signage."
That's the official explanation in the 2006 budget document. Already $1.8 million has been spent around stations like the one at Trethewey and Black Creek Drs. — a monstrosity that all but eclipses the view of the station from busy Black Creek.
This year, another $915,000 is slated for other divisions, $400,000 is to be spent next year and more than half a million dollars in 2008.
If these walls had esthetic qualities, they might be tolerable. A cedar wall is great for my backyard fence; it is not what one might expect of our public institutions on major streets.
According to the explanation from police headquarters, the fencing will protect the personal vehicles of our police officers; keep out vandals; block the view of gangstas who might want to camp out in grassy knolls overlooking the stations and pick off gang rivals being brought into the stations by police; prevent hackers from tapping into police data. That last one is a bit suspect, but we won't quibble.
To the average citizen, this smacks of a siege mentality.
If parking one's personal vehicle in a police division parking lot is such a dangerous activity for police across Toronto, someone forgot to tell the public. You'd think the police are capable of policing their own property. And if they are not, we are all in serious danger.
What the police are telling us is their officers are afraid, so they want us to build them cedar fences to protect their property.
They have video surveillance on their property, they have a building full of cops as backup, they have the full resources of the law, and yet they need a wooden fence behind which to freely operate?
Imagine, then, the kind of security provision the average citizen might need to insulate him or herself from nuisances and vandals and troublemakers. For instance, if I were to provide information to the police on a gunman in hiding, as I would dutifully do, what kind of protection might I be requesting?
"There's an obligation on any employer to take reasonable steps to provide for employee safety," police spokesman Mark Pugash says. Yes, police can and do arrest the perpetrators, "but the fact they're police officers doesn't remove the obligation to provide safety."
Yes. And police already have some protections. They are allowed to register their personal vehicles to the 40 College St. police headquarters address so that would-be criminals cannot trace their home address by checking their licence plate against transportation ministry data.
This kind of barrier is overkill.
I don't begrudge the police any safety tool required to do the job. Give them tasers, bazookas even. I'd vote to furnish police with a helicopter. But the reasons given for this expenditure are weak, very weak.
Several stations are getting a makeover over the next few years and some are being rebuilt. For example, in Rexdale, a new station is going up at Kipling and Finch Aves. It's a welcome sight for anyone who wants a police presence, a friendly and open and accessible and attractive place.
It would be a travesty and a tragedy to erect these ghastly fences along Finch or Kipling. What the area needs is architectural and street-level enhancement, not the walled indifference of privacy-consumed suburbia.
There are many pleasing ways to design a parking lot to limit unwanted intruders. Landscape architects will gladly respond.
Robert Frost wasn't talking about our neighbourhood police station when he wrote, "Good fences make good neighbours." These fences are neither good nor neighbourly.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Royson James usually appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Email: rjames@thestar.ca.