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The Tsawwassen Mills mall is fast becoming a destination for out of town crime seekers.
That was the message brought forward by Delta police Supt. Harj Sidhu at the March Delta police board meeting.
“The Mills mall is becoming a crime destination for people from the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver where they are actually targeting and getting onto busses and then coming into the community,” Sidhu said. “That continues to be an issue. But through our TFN service team working more closely with mall management and merchants we will get a handle on this.”
The DPD provided the Optimist with a look at the calls for service from the Mills from October 2017 to March 9.
There were 18 files that resulted in shoplifting or theft charges. Three of the 18 charged were from Delta, while the others charged came from Vancouver, Surrey, Abbotsford and Langley.
Also of note, in early January police were conducting foot patrols in the mall when they observed two prolific chronic shoplifters, known to police, who had allegedly come to the mall to shop and get away “from the trouble of the Downtown Eastside.” They told police they had travelled to the mall via the free bus that the mall offers.
Mills general manager Mark Fenwick, while not disputing the statistics, said the picture painted by the police is not as bad as it appears.
“We have hundreds of thousands of people visiting a month and if the Delta police have three or four incidents involving people from Vancouver, I don’t think you can say that is a trend,” said Fenwick. “To me you can draw the conclusion that Deltans are law-abiding citizens, but like any shopping centre or destination shop theft occurs occasionally and having people from Abbotsford, Vancouver or Surrey is no surprise because we draw customers regularly from all those areas.”
Fenwick was quick to point out however, that the mall is very pleased with the service they get from Delta police and that the recent addition of police resources, along with continued support from the merchants, has paid off in a decrease in the calls for service.
“Delta police have been very good. Our security provider Paladin works well with them – they have a good relationship and they are making our shopping centre a safe place to shop,” added Fenwick. “The notion that our shuttle is being used as a way to get to the mall to commit crime I too believe was a very isolated incident and that is not a regular occurrence.”
