The Somerset Community Police Centre

The Ottawa Police Service invites the community to celebrate Police Week 2012 on Saturday May 19th in downtown’s Dundonald Park.

Between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., come and meet our neighbourhood’s police officers, visit numerous community service information booths, and learn about the various sections that make up your Ottawa Police Service.  It will be an opportunity for everyone young and old to interact with our Ottawa officers and the many community partners that keep our city healthy and safe.

See the vintage police car, sit in a real police cruiser or police motorcycle, and participate in the Child Print Program.  Free food and drinks, music, balloons, and much more…

Performances By: Taiko Drummers, Dino Reptiles, Shaolin Kung Fu, and Crash the Clown!

Children’s Activities: Mural painting, balloon twisting, bubble making, face painting, and fun tatoos.

Weather Forcase for this Saturday: SUNNY+26C

The park will be filled with balloons, entertainment, face painters, along with BBQ foods and drinks.  Special attention will be given to the Ottawa Neighbourhoood Watch Program and how it helps protect our community.  Everyone is welcome and we look forward to meeting our neighbours that make this city great!

The Ottawa Police Service is participating in Canada Road Safety Week from May 15 to May 21, aimed at reducing injuries and death on our roadways.

During this year’s campaign a key focus is distracted driving. Traffic officers will be setting up enforcement projects across the city involving plainclothes officers. This type of enforcement has proven to be effective in targeting people using hand-held devices and cell phones while driving.

This year’s campaign is also focused on impaired driving, distracted driving, seatbelt and child restraint use and aggressive driving.

The Ottawa Police will also conduct RIDE (Reduce Impaired Driving Everywhere) Programs during the evenings of May 17 and May 18. The RIDE Program is a provincial campaign led by the police community that runs all year long and involves police spot checks where vehicles are stopped and drivers are checked for impairment.

Ottawa Police is also actively engaged in Project E.R.A.S.E. (Eliminate Racing Activity on Streets Everywhere) a collaborative effort of 22 police services, the Ministry of Transportation and the Ministry of the Environment whose goal is to change poor driver behavior through education and strategic enforcement. Excessive speed continues to be the leading contributing factor in fatal collisions.

We encourage all users of our roadways to work towards making our roads the safest in the world.

Canada Road Safety Week is a national coordinated enforcement-driven initiative created by the Traffic Committee of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police designed to increase public compliance with safe driving measures and, ultimately, to save lives.

The May edition of Constable Hoang’s Backyard Beat column is now out. This month’s column focuses on graffiti vandalism.

“Last month, someone decided to tag the side of my neighbour’s house with black spray paint. Shortly afterwards, a second tag appeared with blue spray paint. Being a good neighbour and police officer, I provided her with one of our graffiti removal kit (free at my office) which she used to remove the unsightly tags.”

To read the full article, please visit our website, here. Or pick up a copy of your local community newspaper.

• Centretown: The Centretown Buzz
• Glebe: The Glebe Report
• Old Ottawa South: The OSCAR
• Old Ottawa East: The Main Streeter

Or online at the Centretown News.

On Saturday May 12th, Constable Hoang will be attending and supporting this year’s Chinatown Remixed.

Chinatown Remixed is a month-long local art festival hosted in Chinatown by the Chinatown Remixed Collective. The festival uses Chinatown and Chinatown merchants as the backdrop for re-envisioning asian culture through the showcase of contemporary Ottawa art. For more information about Chinatown Remixed, please visit their website.

Saturday will feature the grand opening of the festival with live street performances and a vernisage for the gallery sites, for more information please view the opening day schedule.

In an ongoing effort to deal with community identified prostitution and prostitution related problems, the Ottawa Police Service conducted a two day prostitution John sweep in Centertown, Lower town and Vanier on April 27 and 28, 2012.

A total of 20 John/males were arrested.   Nineteen of the males qualified for the Pre-charge Diversion Program which includes attending “John” School.  “John School” is a project which uses a restorative justice approach to the effects of prostitution within our communities and focuses on education.

The remaining male was charged with a variety of offences including communicating for the purpose of prostitution, mischief, and breaches of previous forms of judiciary release. A total of six criminal charges were laid.

The Ottawa Police Service conducts John sweeps throughout the year and will continue to make this a priority when developing enforcement strategies.