Vancouver Police Constable Roger Rai, who was recently transferred to District 3 where most of the city’s 30,000 Indo-Canadians reside, realized that there was a need for a community policing station that could specifically deal with the problems confronting this community.
He told The VOICE about the increasing number of calls he had to deal with that involved translation services, domestic violence issues, family issues, alcohol-related issues and so on.
With Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu stressing the need for building even stronger ties with the community than the department already has, Rai set about he task of rectifying the situation.
The nearest community policing office for the majority of South Asians was at Victoria and 41st and for someone from Main Street and 49th or Fraser Street and 56th to go that distance appeared to be too much of an effort. Also, the Chinese-Canadian community and the Musqueam band had target-specific community policing offices.
So Rai initiated a project to establish a target-specific community policing office for Indo-Canadians. He approached Ross Street Sikh Temple President Kashmir Dhaliwal and got a space for the office in the centre across the road from the gurdwara. After all, with more than 1,000 people attending the gurdwara on Sundays, it seemed the logical choice to reach out to the community in friendly surroundings.
The office, which has been functioning for the past couple of Sundays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., will have its grand opening on Sunday, July 6 at 11 a.m. It operates as part of the South Vancouver community police centre.
Rai said: “The eventual goal is to open a full-time office on Main Street. That depends on the funding.”
Rai stressed that the office is not situated in the gurdwara itself and is not a religious office. He said it was for the whole community, adding: “I want people to feel comfortable no matter what their religion.”
He also noted: “When I am not there, we have a drop box in front of the door so that people can leave their name and phone number where I would contact them within a day, and go up there and speak with them and address any issue.”
Rai said that the good thing was that seniors who have an association there have already doing a lot of volunteer work involving services such as passport information, immigration and income tax. So this office was like providing additional services.
However, Rai, who’s been 17 years with the Vancouver Police Department, stressed that this was not an office to get information on crime, though people could do that.
He said: “It’s more an office about community involvement and three things that I classified as responsibility, accountability and leadership.”
He pointed out the fact that South Asians are a very tight-knit community and added: “We all know each other and it’s our responsibility to start getting involved not only in our family’s life but also in our friends’ lives and people that we know. So if we see something that’s occurring that we know is not right, instead of standing back, we should get involved. For example, if you know your neighbour is continually beating up his wife or things like that, you get involved. Basically the office is a place for people who reside in that community to come down and talk about anything. It’s about opening up the dialogue.”
Rai, who went to Kitsilano secondary and UBC, where he was also on the basketball team, said he looked forward to going out more with the kids. While the community may not be able to reform hardcore gang members, kids could be guided and influenced with positive role models such as police officers and sports personalities like Vancouver Canucks draft pick Prab Rai.
He added: “Where the change has to take place is with the parents not turning a blind eye when their kids come home with expensive cars, questioning what they are doing and who their friends are, and then also confronting them where they think there are issues that need to be (dealt with).”
Rai gave the example of an Indo-Canadian dad who crashed his vehicle into a pole three weeks ago.
He recounted: “He had been possibly drinking – we didn’t know at that time, but people had seen him running away from the car. So I went up to his house and sure enough he was quite intoxicated. For me, at that point it was not so much about arresting him for driving drunk – we didn’t know that for a fact. … I was more concerned that the person was okay. So I started asking him if he was okay and he kept saying, ‘No, I wasn’t driving. No, it wasn’t me.’ … And I said look we’ll deal with the other issue afterwards, let’s make sure you’re okay first.”
His wife, who was present along with their two teenage kids, started insisting that she was the one who was driving.
Rai said: “To me that was more of a problem because here we had someone who did something wrong like drinking and driving. … I said to the wife: ‘You have two children here and they see what dad did was wrong. … And you are just standing there and lying for him. So what values are you teaching your kids? You’re telling them that if you do something wrong, lie, don’t worry, I’ll cover up for you.’
“And that’s the mindset I want to try to change. I want to say look if you do something wrong, accept it. Take the responsibility, say what you did was wrong and then move on.
“Unless people start taking responsibility, it’s very difficult for us to move ahead. We are a very powerful group and I think individuals need to understand that. Politicians come to our Vaisakhi parade. That area is a vibrant area. The South Asian community is a very strong, hardworking community and I think people need to take that into account when they do things because we have the power as a group to get a lot accomplished.
“And that’s the whole focus of that office. It’s a place where people can drop in, discuss whatever issue they have, and ask questions if they need help with something.”
Rai has also been discussing ways to revitalize the Main Street Punjabi Market with the businessmen there.
He said: “I realize that the Main Street (Punjabi Market) has to get back to the levels it was in the 80s and early 90s when it was a strong and vibrant market. Because if the market stays strong, then their prosperity can translate into more involvement in the community and I think that’s key towards revitalizing that whole area and community.
So I have been working with them, trying to develop ways of bringing more tourists up there, having more involvement in the community … maybe doing community fair days.”
As far as this project is concerned, Rai, who initiated and developed it and is now running it, will evaluate it at the end of the summer and see where they can go with it. If it needs some tweaking, he’ll do that. If it’s positive, he’ll continue with it. If it can be expanded, he’ll look at that.
Indeed, it’s time for the community to come together and cooperate in making this new project a resounding success.
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