Uptown Saint John business owners frustrated by response to rise in crime

Jenn Tuttle says she's frustrated with the amount of theft she's experienced since opening a new location of the yoga business she co-owns last fall.

"We knew that there was theft in uptown Saint John, but not to the extent that it has been," she said. "Probably starting in January or so, we were having one to two thefts a week that we were catching, not sure how many more than that had occurred."

Tuttle and other uptown business owners are desperate to find solutions. About 20 of them attended a meeting last week to bring their concerns about rising thefts, drug dealing and incidents like public nudity to the attention of Saint John police and to discuss what to do about it.

City council members Paula Radwan, David Hickey and Barry Ogden attended as well.

The meeting was organized by Nancy Tissington, executive director of the Uptown Saint John Business Improvement Association.

"When I start getting several phone calls … I really wanted to dive in deeper to say, 'OK, we can't ignore this. We need to really help these businesses," Tissington said.

She started noticing owners approaching her with concerns last winter, she said, which was when "it sort of really boiled to the surface."

Attendees expressed their frustrations to Saint John police community engagement Sgt. Jeremy Edwards, who took questions. They spoke of concerns about police response times and seeing offenders released shortly after they were arrested.

Some business owners asked questions about de-escalation training, and whether they could use force if their business were targeted.

Tuttle said her store currently has 14 files open with the police. The financial impact of nearly weekly thefts amounts to  roughly $10,000 in stolen merchandise and $30,000 in security measures such as magnetic security tags for merchandise, extra inventory counts and more staff, she said.

"Our staff was starting to feel unsafe … so we did a lot of different things," she said.

Tissington said the business improvement association has grants that owners can access to purchase security cameras if they need them.

Saint John Police spokesperson Sgt. Matthew Weir said in an interview following the meeting that when a crime is in progress, police will do their best to respond quickly and that response times can depend on the seriousness of the call.

"If it's something that's taking place and somebody's property is being damaged or somebody could be getting hurt, well then we are going to go to that right away," he said.