Greater Sudbury Police Service (GSPS) is piloting a project that promises to redirect proceeds of crime towards efforts that lower crime.  With a $99,854 grant that the GSPS received from the province the service will implement a community policing and crime prevention office in the Place Balmoral apartment building at 720 Bruce Ave., in the Flour Mill area.  The grant money comes from assets seized by police as a result of being proceeds of crime.

Roughly 20 years ago, the then Sudbury Regional Police operated satellite offices in housing developments such as Ryan Heights and Fournier Gardens.  However, GSPS vows to be more engaged with the new Place Balmoral office.  Many officers will use it as their home base in addition to being staffed two full-time members of the service.  There will be a community resources officer, a sergeant and one officer from each of the patrols assigned to the base.  The office will serve as a provincial pilot project.

Greater Sudbury Police Chief Frank Elsner spoke at the press conference that spearheaded the project, saying the Flour Mill and Donovan areas are top of mind for the service.  Chief Elsner, along with the service, intends to make positive changes within the community and throughout the entire province.  He further explained their intentions, saying that the goal of this project is to find out what works and what doesn’t, then take the best and expand on it.

Funding for the office is part of $494,162 Greater Sudbury Police is sharing from three asset forfeiture initiatives by the Ontario Provincial Police and 17 police services.  Under federal legislation, police and prosecutors can seize assets obtained through criminal activites.  Assets seized by the province as proceeds of crime will thn be made available for policing purposes through Ontario’s Proceeds of Crime Front Line Policing Grant Program.  Over $3.15 million has been made available for projects across Ontario this year. 

Also present at the inaugural press conference was Sudbury MPP Rick Bartolucci, who is Ontario’s Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services.  Bartolucci is a major proponent of the project, saying it sends a clear message to criminals that their proceeds of crime will be taken and used to fund projects like these that aim to decrease crime.

Another supporter of the program is Anita Larocque, who has been president of the Balmoral Citizen Association the past 15 years and a resident of the building for 20.  Larocque says residents of the building will feel safer having members of the service around them, when previously they’ve been too scared to even go out at night.