There’s been a lot of discussion in recent years about an increase in violent crime, but the NDP is urging a different approach than the traditional calls for greater incarceration rates and “jail, not bail.”

The MHA for St. John’s East-Quidi Vidi, Sheilagh O’Leary, suggests that a good way to address public safety concerns in the community is to put added emphasis on community policing.

She says foot patrols are a great way to connect the community with police and get to know officers.

She says simply locking people away isn’t always the answer.

“‘Shut ’em up and lock ’em away,’ that philosophy, it’s not going to improve the situation,” says O’Leary. “As we can see, and of course there’s been a long-time fight for intimate partner violence supports. Just getting people in the system and then chuck them back out again, without any kind of meaningful rehabilitation on how people can change their lives and move forward, is not what we should do.”