Church and Wellesley is a downtown Toronto neighbourhood. As the name suggests, it is located in and around the intersection of Church Street and Wellesley Street. The neighbourhood’s northern boundary is Charles Street and the southern boundary is Gerrard Street. Yonge Street is the western boundary and Jarvis Street is the eastern boundary. The Church and Wellesley neighbourhood is a mixture of housing options as well as commercial space, restaurants and bars. As it is located very close to the downtown core, the neighbourhood is often quite busy. It is a frequent tourist destination as well. As with all downtown Toronto neighbourhoods, there is some crime in the Church and Wellesley area. The region between Yonge Street and Church Street, between Bloor Street and Carlton Street, has an average of 10.67 crimes against people per 1000 people living and working in the area. There is an average of 32.58 crimes against property per 1000. East of Yonge Street to Jarvis Street, still between Carlton and Bloor, there is an average of 7.7 crimes against people per 1000 and 27.86 crimes against property per 1000. While these statistics cover a slightly larger region than what is generally accepted as the Church and Wellesley neighbourhood, they still manage to paint a picture of what crime is like in the area. It’s also important to remember that while crime varies across the city it does not stop along predefined boundaries. Criminals do not think about the official City of Toronto neighbourhoods when they seek to cause trouble. In November 2010, three people – two men and a woman – were arrested following an alleged attempted convenience store robbery on Church Street near Wellesley. In July 2011, a man was arrested for allegedly posing as a police officer and stealing money from victims in the Church and Wellesley area. From Inside Toronto:
Investigators report the man recently approached several men in their 60s and 70s near Church and Wellesley streets. He allegedly told the men he was an undercover officer and requested to see their identification. The suspect then removed cash from the victims wallets as he was questioning his victims. The suspect then told his victims he would come back in a few moments but never returned. At no point did the man show police identification. None of the victims have been injured during the robberies, which have taken place at various times of the day from early afternoon to late at night.
In situations such as these ones, it’s important to always be aware of your surroundings and to think carefully before you make any decisions. The same is true in the case of Spring Phillips. From the Toronto Star:
If someone needed a place to stay, Spring Phillips would offer her home. That naiveté, police say, may have led to her death. The 26-year-old was found dead in her 27th-floor Wellesley St. E. apartment on Saturday. Police have arrested a man she had met just days earlier. Det. Hank Idsinga called the murder “disturbing,” and said Phillips’ one-bedroom unit showed signs of a struggle.”There was quite a lot of blood throughout the apartment. It looked like it did carry on for some time,” he said. Neighbours told police they heard screaming and fighting coming from the apartment sometime after 12:30 a.m. Saturday, but no one called police, Idsinga said. Security footage from the apartment shows Aggek leaving the elevator just before 5 a.m., police said. In the video, a man calmly walks out of the building, pausing to bend down and pick up what appears to be a cigarette butt off the floor. Phillips’ body was later discovered by a former boyfriend who had come by to pick the woman up to go shopping. “There was obvious trauma to the body,” said Idsinga.
This situation also highlights the fact that security cameras are vitally important in the fight against crime. Footage from surveillance cameras can identify suspects, help determine what happened at a crime scene and lead to convictions. SafeTech Alarm Systems offers a wide variety of security cameras, from home security cameras to business security cameras. Installing a security camera can help protect you from becoming a crime victim as criminals often avoid areas that are under video surveillance.