Trena Irving is set to tell city council tonight the city-funded Canada Games Centre needs better security measures.

Irving had finished a swim with her three-year-old daughter and husband on the evening of Feb. 24 at the Games Centre, when she was robbed.

"At 9:15, my husband asked where his jacket was, and we realized it wasn't there (where we had left it)," writes Irving in a letter she plans to read at tonight's standing committee meeting.

"He had his wallet with $500 to pay our renovator, a cell phone and his wallet with all his ID in the jacket."

Irving said she called the cell phone, someone answered it, and then hung up.

She and her husband spent the better part of the night calling credit card companies to cancel their accounts.

She has still not had any luck replacing or finding her lost items, though she has put advertisements in city newspapers and on CKRW radio's Trader Time.

Irving said she knows it was her error to leave the jacket, along with her daughter's, unattended for about 10 minutes in the pool's family change room.

"However, I have some problems with how the theft was handled and in conjunction, the policies the CGC enforces."

Irving said she immediately reported the theft to Games Centre staff, who contacted the RCMP.

The officer took down her information, and was handed a copy of the centre's surveillance tape to review.

There are 15 cameras throughout the facility, with another 10 to be purchased in the near future, said indoor facility manager Art Manhire.

The surveillance footage "is not for general use," he said, but rather for review in cases like this.

Select staff members are permitted to review footage in certain cases, he told the Star today.

Irving said she was told staff did not review the tapes, and that only the RCMP can watch them.

Irving said she wanted to help the investigation by watching the tapes and pointing out people leaving the change room who had been among the 10 or so swimming that night.

She said she had seen some teenagers in the area who had not been swimming, which raised a red flag.

"I have heard teens refer to this type of activity as 'locker shopping,'" said the gym teacher. She said she figures this is what happened to her husband's jacket.

Manhire said the tapes are not to be viewed by members of the public to protect the privacy of the centre's users.

In her letter to city council, Irving raises a number of suggested security changes the centre could adopt.

These include the use of only one main entry and exit door, frequent checks of change rooms by staff, citizen patrols, better adult-to-children supervision ratios, and training staff to deal with security concerns.

"I don't blame the staff,' she said. "I think it's up to the community to do something.

"I would be glad to be a part of a committee or as a community volunteer to help out with issues of safety and security," she writes.

She said she has used the centre for three years, and will not curb her visits, but will stop bringing valuables in with her.

Manhire suggests just that.

"If you bring valuables, make sure they are locked up," he said.

The centre provides lockers in change rooms, as well as smaller ones for valuables along the walls of the main concourse.

He said there have been three thefts at the centre since the beginning of February, and all have been from people without locks.

He said it is very rare to have items stolen from locked lockers, and never has anything been pilferred from the centre's small, valuables lockers.

The city's standing committee meeting is set to begin at 7:30 p.m.