Business Liaison

The primary role of the Business Liaison Officer is to liaise with retail merchants and business organizations. This may include exchanging information on crime related matters, providing crime analysis information to the business community and assisting with crime prevention ideas. The member is responsible for providing education and training to the business community on a wide range of topics.

The secondary role for the Business Liaison Officer is to serve as a back-up to the Media Relation Officers in the Community & Public Affairs Section.

Business Liaison Programs & Presentations

Eye Watch

Eye Watch is a one hour training session for Vancouver businesses / employees who work outdoors in different neighbourhoods. During the training you will find out how you can help keep neighbourhoods safe and also keep yourself safe through increased awareness of your surroundings. See the Eye Watch Brochure (PDF) for more information.

Project Griffin

The mission of Project Griffin is to increase public safety by supplying organizations and groups with information and support in order to assist them in their crime prevention efforts.

Griffin is a project that was developed by the City of London Police in 2004. In the U.K., the focus is counter-terrorism. In Vancouver, the focus is on property crime.

Cst. Anne Longley

Constable Anne Longley joined the Vancouver Police Department in January 1991 after gaining experience working as a police reserve officer, an emergency dispatcher and 9-1-1 call-taker. She holds a BA degree from SFU in criminology and psychology and an associate certificate in public relations from BCIT.

Her first five years were spent working as a patrol officer in both the northeast and southwest areas of the city. Her next assignment was working in the Youth Squad in the Street Youth Intervention Car before transferring her skills working with youth to the School Liaison Unit. She was the School Liaison Officer for Sir Charles Tupper and St. Patrick’s high schools for three years. During this time she developed and taught many crime prevention related programs for children and youth. Anne was part of a team of School Liaison officers that initiated the very successful Student Challenge program, and they received a Deputy Chief Constable’s commendation for their efforts.

Anne was part of the Recruiting Unit from 2000 to 2004, working in all aspects of the hiring process of new police officers. She became an Assessor for the JIBC Recruit Assessment Centre, and still participates in assessing potential police recruits.

Between 2004 and 2006 Anne was the Coordinator of the Traffic Authority Unit where she managed 50 part-time sworn special constables and all aspects of the Traffic Authority program, from staffing & HR issues to equipment concerns.

The following two years Anne worked with both the 2010 Integrated Security Unit in the Urban Domain planning area, and then as the “In-Service” training coordinator, planning and coordinating police training courses within the VPD Training Section.

In March of 2009, Anne joined the Community & Public Affairs Section in Community Policing as the Business Liaison Officer. In this role, she works to build relationships with the business community and provides them with crime prevention and public safety information. She is the coordinator for Project Griffin training seminars, which are held monthly and a one-hour Eye Watch program which is provided upon request.

In December of 2010, Anne became the first Social Media Officer for the Vancouver Police Department, embracing the world of Twitter and Facebook with short, timely and interesting messages about the Vancouver Police Department. She is also the relief Media Relations Officer and will occasionally be seen in the local media reporting on crime and public safety issues.