As Task Force Barrage draws to a close, Downtown Eastside will soon have a new police city. 

As the city moves to transform a temporary increase in officers presence in the area into a continuous structure, Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside may be managed by a new police area. Seven decades after the release of” Task Force Barrage,” Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim claimed the area had experienced a 23-year lower in violent crime. Sim remarked that” the Task Force storm is only the start.” The Downtown Eastside can’t be fixed by itself, and it doesn’t get transformed immediately. True change refers to moving from a short-term perspective to a long-term perspective.
The town’s police and fire leaders cited data they said showed a transition between February and August at a press conference held at town hall on Monday. According to Vancouver Fire Chief Karen Fry, medical incidents were down 28 %, false alarms were down 31 %, and medical overdoses had decreased by 36 %. A second less names would be in your head, she said. She noted that there has been a 25 % decrease in the number of calls where firefighters have to wait for police to reach and secure a picture. These findings demonstrate how successfully operation storm is reducing the demand on our sources, Fry said. According to Vancouver Police Chief Steve Rai, soldiers seized 171 weapons from the DTES, out of which roughly 1,500 were taken. According to him, police reported an 18 % drop in violent crime, a 44 % drop in robberies, and a 23 % drop in serious assaults in the neighborhood. 1: 55
Task Force Barrage making a difference” Over the past fortnight, Task Force Barrage has demonstrated what meaningful change may seem like,” Rai said. Some businesspeople in the area claim that there has also been a shift in the Downtown Eastside. The atmosphere of society is slightly different than it was before. According to Brandon Grossutti, the owner of Pidgin Restaurant, it seems a little bit more controlled and sane. The VPD then intends to strengthen its presence in the area by dividing the Downtown Eastside from the already-existing District 2 into a new District 5 as Task Force Barrage’s$ 5 million in cash is now about to expire. Rai claimed that the police unit may be specific to the region, but it was too soon to determine the cost of the change. In the first quarter of this budget period, he said,” We’re going to start with a regional specific area and as we transition to a whole district, we’ll toss an exact number.” One of the reasons the VPD is projected to overspend its budget for 2025 is the cost of the task force barrage, which is nearly$ 7 million. Sim said he would even be bringing a motion to government to create a new “performance model” called VanStat in addition to the establishment of the new neighborhood policing the Downtown Eastside. The measurement would enable city-wide performance reviews to take place every month, taking into account data from the police, fire, architecture, housing, the arts, culture, and business services departments. One that “brings every office to the table, coordinates resources, monitors results, and reports progress up to the public,” Sim said. No silos, no duplicates, simply accountability and transparency, Sim said, and the movement will be presented to the council on October 8. &, copy 2025 Global News, a Corus Entertainment Inc. section.