The City of Kenora is taking action to help solve increasing concerns of violence in the downtown core.

An Emergency Council meeting was held Thursday with several members of the public coming forward to share their experiences.

Three action items were agreed upon after Council members heard from the community.

They include the hiring of a Community Safety and Well-being Coordinator, moving forward with a redeveloped Community Safety and Well-being plan and commit to increased foot and car patrol in the downtown by Provincial Police.

Council members delivered their final messages following the meeting:

OPP Inspector Jeff Duggan issued the following statement:

“In response to today’s meeting on downtown safety I want to personally thank all those that came out or joined the session online. The Ontario Provincial Police Kenora Detachment and its officers are committed to public safety and are committed to ensuring people feel safe in the downtown core. After the Open form was complete, I had a chance to sit down with Mayor Poirier and the rest of City Council to talk about how we can work together to resolve the issues we are seeing. We are committed to making changes to our front-line response and are committed to rolling that out as soon as we can. We ask that if you see a crime being committed or suspicious activity that you call the police. In an emergency, please call 911. 911 is for emergencies only and should only be called if there is a crime in progress or someone’s life is in danger. If not please call our non-emergency line at 1 888 310 1122.”