Pivot calls for private security ban
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| These images of private security guards waking up a homeless person, and moving them along, were taken in Downtown Vancouver at 4 a.m. this morning. |
Vancouver, November 27, 2008 - Pivot is calling for a ban on private security patrols in public space, and is asking the City of Vancouver to revoke public funding to Business Improvement Associations to pay for private security guards.
The organization is calling for the $1.8 million spent annually by BIAs on private security to be redirected instead into outreach and support services for homeless people.
Pivot’s new report Security before Justice finds that the poorer you are, the more likely you are to be interrogated, harassed or experience violence at the hands of private security guards. The study, based on surveys and focus groups with over 160 residents of the Downtown Eastside, revealed that homeless people have more frequent and more problematic interactions with security guards than people who are housed. People on income assistance or disability are also much more likely to be targeted by private security.
“This is a clear case of discrimination against the homeless and people who appear to be poor,” says Laura Track, a lawyer with Pivot Legal Society. “Business Improvement Associations are hiring these guards to manage public streets and sidewalks as though they were private property. It amounts to a violation of people’s right to make equal use of public space.”
Downtown Eastside resident Gladys Radek agrees: “They say that private security guards are here to help, but in my case they just decided that looking poor made me suspicious and as a result I was subjected to harassment.”
The authors of the study are calling on the City of Vancouver to cancel funding for the Downtown Ambassador program, ban private security patrols on public property, and re-direct the approximately $1.8 million of tax dollars currently spent on private security into genuine homeless outreach services. Public funding for private security amounts to nearly $100 a month per homeless person, money that could be directed to rent supplements that help people secure affordable housing.
"I would like to see my business's tax dollars spent on a more proactive and helpful solution to homelessness than private police" says Swami Lalitananda, owner of Radha Yoga and Eatery on Main Street. "In a truly 'civil city', public money would be spent to support people to improve their lives, not to move them out of business areas."
