{"id":545571,"date":"2026-03-18T23:48:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T23:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/545571\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T23:48:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T23:48:09","slug":"toronto-police-safety-hub-opens-in-lawrence-heights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/545571\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto police safety hub opens in Lawrence Heights"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Toronto police now have a dedicated presence in North York\u2019s Lawrence Heights neighbourhood, a commitment Chief Myron Demkiw made in the days following <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ctvnews.ca\/toronto\/article\/1-dead-5-others-in-hospital-following-shooting-in-lawrence-heights\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.ctvnews.ca\/toronto\/article\/1-dead-5-others-in-hospital-following-shooting-in-lawrence-heights\/\">a June 2025 mass shooting<\/a> that killed a 31-year-old man in a wheelchair and injured six others.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">On Wednesday, Demkiw joined Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow and local Coun. Mike Colle, as well as community members, for the grand opening of a new safety hub.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Located in a commercial unit at 10 Old Meadow Lane, just north of Lawrence Avenue West and east of Allen Road, the space will serve as a home base for Neighbourhood Community Officers (NCOs), providing them with a place to meet with members of the community and work on crime prevention initiatives.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GKHB2YR27ZGPXMKRWSFC7OVRSE.jpeg\"  width=\"800\" height=\"450\"\/>New community saftey hub Lawrence Heights March 18 Officials and community members cut the ribbon on a new safety hub in North York&#8217;s Lawrence Heights neighbourhood on March 18. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cWhere gun violence is prevalent, you need to kind of reframe how we look at our community, instead of homicides and the individuals that we\u2019ve lost,\u201d community leader Mike Jonathan said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The chief of police echoed his thoughts, saying this is especially relevant in areas where \u201cwe have seen incidents and violence, we know the police presence matters.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Colle, meanwhile, said the new safety hub will serve as a place for making connections.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cNot just when crime occurs, but preventing things from happening, by people getting to know the local police and having a coffee with them, you know,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s a meeting place for the police, the community, beyond just when something bad happens.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/76A5IATAKJGH5FVT7DATJD5J2M.jpeg\"  width=\"800\" height=\"450\"\/>Mike Colle Lawrence Heights safety hub launch Marrch 18 Coun. Mike Colle speaks during the launch of a new community safety hub in North York&#8217;s Lawrence Heights neighbourhood. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Chow, in her remarks, said it\u2019s a place where residents can get to know officers by name and build trust at the local level. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cHow do you build a community?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cYou build a community when you build relationships, when you trust each other, when you can talk to each other; that\u2019s most important.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Lawrence Heights resident Chit Alcantara said the safety hub will enhance security in the neighbourhood.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s not very safe, I guess. So now that they\u2019re having this in here, that we\u2019re very, very happy. We\u2019re ecstatic about this, believe you me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Toronto police now have a dedicated presence in North York\u2019s Lawrence Heights neighbourhood, a commitment Chief Myron Demkiw&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":545572,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[712,49,48,3302],"class_list":["post-545571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}