As crime rates rise, London police open new Dundas Street office

London Police marked the grand opening of their new downtown foot patrol office at 183 Dundas St. with a ribbon cutting ceremony Wednesday.

The opening came hours after a man was stabbed in front of its doors and taken to hospital with serious injuries.

"We need to be visible, we need to be downtown, we need to be where the crime is happening," said Trish McIntyre, the acting Chief of Police in London.

Police will continue to operate their downtown foot patrol out of a space in the Covent Garden Market building until an official move is made. In August 2022 they announced the renovation of a downtown storefront was underway to serve as a proper base of operations. 

The current location in the Covent Garden Market will be vacated by police in the near future, and the new location will be home to 22 officers, three of whom are supervisors. The address on Dundas was chosen after consultation with business owners in the area, and is in line with the City of London's Core Area Action Plan, police said. 

"This space just allows for greater specificity in investigations. It allows us to have one stop shopping, a place to place our bikes, and for officers to do some work. We outgrew the other [space]," McIntyre said.

The hope is that the visibility of officers at the new location will deter crime in the area, McIntyre explained.

"We hear [people who are scared to come to downtown London] 100 per cent. We know that. We hear it from our community partners. They do not feel safe."

Another area police hope to improve with the opening of the new patrol office is public outreach. The recently released public needs survey showed a decrease in people who would call police if they need help, a trend McIntyre hopes will reverse with the work of more officers in the core.

Police use predictive analytics to track where crime may happen before it occurs, a tool that only becomes stronger when calls are made to report even the most  trivial incidents to police, McIntyre said.

That outreach should extend to London's most vulnerable as well, she added.

In the future, London Police will continue to ask for community support for budget increases to deploy more officers throughout the city, and in the downtown, McIntyre said. Tuesday night, a council committee voted almost unanimously in favour of providing extra funding for police to hire 17 new officers this year.