Sault Ste. Marie Police Service will be working with the City of Sault Ste. Marie and partner agencies to hone in on decrepit buildings and derelict properties that are deemed unsafe for tenants and neighbours - and may be conducive to criminal activity.
On Friday, the police service announced the launch of the Integrated Municipal Enforcement Team (IMET), which will see police work with fire services, the housing commission and the city’s building and by-law departments to address issues and concerns from the community.
“All these issues come to a head where we thought we need a good partnership, and the city agencies - fire, building and bylaw and the housing commission - have been incredibly motivating and great partners, and saying, let’s do this together, let’s make sure this city is safe,” said Sault Ste. Marie Police Service Chief Hugh Stevenson, speaking with SooToday Friday. “Let’s hold landlords accountable for their property, and when I say that, I mean accountable in terms of proper electrical standards, proper fire protective approaches, building inspector issues.”
“Also, if you’re operating a building and you know as a landlord that there’s significant criminal activity for a long time - people complain to you about it, you do nothing. You will likely see that you’re on our radar for properties that need to be cleaned up in this city.”
On Thursday IMET made its first move, conducting an enforcement operation at 383 1st Avenue. According to police, a number of by-law and fire infractions were identified.
“There’ll be a number of properties that we’ll be investigating in the future, based on the amount of need related to public safety and criminal behaviour,” Stevenson said.
In a news release issued Friday, Sault police maintain that a number of buildings both in the city and Prince Township are not in compliance with municipal by-laws, fire codes and other regulations, and are not only unsafe but “conducive to drug dealing and secondary criminal offences such as theft from vehicles, mischief and break and enter.”
“We need to be held accountable for our properties, and we need to be accountable to our neighbours in this community,” said Stevenson. “We get constant calls from a variety of service, from a variety of locations about ongoing drug usage, about open prostitution, about open drug distribution and production.”
“We realize that the police in and of ourselves can’t do it - we need a community approach to it.”