Frustrated residents of downtown Port Colborne want to see some action.
CEO of Breakwall Brewery Fred Davies attended last night's packed public meeting to tackle the ongoing issues of vandalism and violence.
Davies says they listened to a 40 minute review of the district by Niagara Regional Police.
"Police told us that crime rates are actually trending down. We don't see that on the street level, we see it trending up significantly. On a daily basis, because I do live downtown, I spend a lot of time downtown, I see an influx of people that are scoping around to make some trouble."
Davies tells CKTB's Tim Denis his security cameras have been vandalized, wires have been cut, and he has even been punched in broad daylight when he tried to track down a man he says was 'doing something nasty' on his front porch.
"We want to see some action! It's not just right for us to complain about this and blame the police because it's not just a policing issue. We need to be a bit more proactive downtown. I suggested to council that it's time to move to a camera system, a surveillance system downtown. Many downtown's do this - I think we've reached a point in our evolution that we need to consider that seriously."
Some people suggested forming a grass roots committee to look at other options as well.
Davies is quick to add it's a safe town, and the downtown is beautiful, but these incidents are happening in the middle of the night.