SUDBURY -- Job postings are up for six security enforcement officers being hired by the City of Greater Sudbury.
It's part of a pilot project to enhance safety at downtown municipal facilities and the downtown core.
Starting in April, two bylaw officers, part of a mobile unit, will be on the beat in the downtown core from 8:30 in the morning until after midnight.
The Manager of Security and Bylaw Services with the city Brendan Adair said "their focus is going to be downtown city facilities, so they are gonna be a proactive and reactive response to provide customer service and security service within those facilities."
Those include the transit terminal and the downtown library.
Adair says the pilot project is to take pressure off police, so they dont have to be responding to non-urgent calls.
"For facilities that don't have security for example such as Mckenzie library, having a response for staff when they are dealing with challenging situations or challenging conversations. We understand employees didn't sign up to have those conversations so we want to provide a response." said Adair.
The security enforcement officers will have the power to enforce municipal bylaws and can make arrests for some crimes.
Gary Robicheau owns a downtown business and thinks the enhanced security measure is a good move by the city.
"All the security presence helps our downtown, I strongly believe it's good for us, it keep things clean on our streets, buildings protected, so I am all for that." said Robicheau.
The Downtown Sudbury Business Improvement Area is paying $50K of the $275K cost for the six new hires.
The balance is coming from the city, but the money being used is from a revenue-sharing program that came with the legalization of cannabis.
