Calls to cops may have levelled off a bit in June, but 2023 is still on track to outpace pre-pandemic numbers.
South Simcoe Police Deputy Chief Sheryl Sutton provided the monthly operational and financial updates for June during the police services board meeting at the Innisfil Town Hall on Wednesday.
The operating report showed 2,704 total calls for service in June with 45.41 per cent in Bradford and 54.59 per cent in Innisfil.
So far, almost every month in 2023 has seen a greater number of calls for service than in the most recent pre-pandemic year of 2019, with 15,930 by the end of June 2023, compared to 15,033 at same time in 2019.
Only April of 2023 had noticeably fewer calls at 2,605, compared to 2,663 in 2019.
This year, June had almost the same number of calls as June 2019, which saw 2,705 calls for service.
Sutton was cautious to avoid reading too far into the stalled increase in calls for service for just a single month.
“I guess we’re going to wait and see what happens. I think we’re on trajectory to have historic highs for calls for service for the year. That’s what we’re anticipating, but if it’s not then that’s good news,” she said.
Sutton explained the summer months tend to bring an increase in calls for service each year, as tourism causes the population to increase.
“It’s different than 20 years ago when all the vacationers would come up here. More people have their permanent homes in our community. Our daily population with the beaches and all the festivals that certainly increases,” she said.
At only halfway through the year the service has already issued 3,221 provincial offence notices compared to 4,150 in all of 2022.
Sutton explained the jump is caused by a mixture of population growth and increased enforcement.
“Our communities are growing so there’s more traffic in our communities. We’ve also increased our traffic officers by two, so now we have six officers,” she said.
Sutton also explained that the service has moved away from a previous pilot project to issue caution notices, but officers still use their discretion when writing a citation.
All front-line patrol cars have speed radar, with all traffic patrol units equipped with roaming radar and all other cruisers equipped with the stationary handheld devices.
Sutton also presented some of the statistics from the automated speed cameras that have been issuing warning letters.
While she said there is a cap on how many letters are sent out, a single section of Kilarney Beach Road in Innisfil, with a speed limit of 50 km/h, saw 6,051 vehicles exceeding the speed limit by 25 km/h or more just between between May 5 and June 18, including:
- 5,430 travelling 75-85 km/h
- 554 travelling 86-95 km/h
- 32 travelling 96-100 km/h
- 55 travelling 101-116 km/h
“It just goes to show how many people are speeding,” Sutton said.
A section of Simcoe Road in Bradford saw 464 vehicles exceeding the speed limit by 25 km/h or more between June 1 and June 27, including:
- 448 travelling 75-85 km/h
- 19 travelling 86-95 km/h
- 2 travelling 96-100 km/h
- 3 travelling 101-116 km/h
Some of those included repeat offenders, including one person who Sutton said was caught speeding 17 times, and another caught more than four times.
“No one seems to be able to want to slow down,” Van Dyke said.
Todd Canning, vice chair, called the numbers “astounding.”
Insp. Henry Geoffroy tried to put the issue into perspective.
“It’s not scientific, but quick question: Do you know how many cars are speeding on the 400 right now? Almost all of them. ... It is a provincial issue. Those people who drive on the 400 driving minimum 10-25 over are now going on our roads, driving that same pace over. That’s one of the biggest challenges,” he said.
June saw 119 motor vehicle collisions with 59 in Bradford and 60 Innisfil. Out of all of those, only 13 resulted in injury, with no fatal collisions.
Only 37 of the 2,704 calls for service were the highest priority 1, while 817 were priority 4 and 816 were priority 7.
There were some areas in which calls decreased in June 2023 compared to June 2022, including:
- Domestics decreased to 77 from 82
- Impaired decreased to 13 from 25
- Landlord tenant disputes decreased to 12 from 18
- Shoplifting decreased to six from seven
However, there were other areas in which calls increased in June 2023 compared to June 2022
- Provincial offence notices increased to 631 from 347
- Thefts from vehicles increased to 19 from four
- Vehicles stolen increased to 11 from five
- Break and enters increase to 14 from nine
- Mental health calls increased to 22 from 12
Sutton didn’t see any important trends in the changes.
“I think the takeaway is just that it fluctuates every month. When you look at the changes, they’re not significant changes. I think by the end of the year there will be some categories that will be lower, but some will be higher,” she said.
When it came to the year-over-year perspective, Canning highlighted the increase to assaults with a weapon.
"I’m seeing just from my perspective that there’s a trend regionally, not just necessarily within our service area, but this seems to be more common,” he said.
So far in 2023, the service has already recorded 18 incidents of assault with a weapon, compared to 15 in all of 2022.
“Our communities are certainly changing and we are beginning to have more violent calls for service, so we are trending upwards,” Sutton said.
Van Dyke noted the service has also recorded seven robberies in 2023, which is the same as all of 2022.
“We’ve also hit our robbery totals for all of last year in the first six months. Robberies are up substantially,” he said.
Crisis calls were down slightly with 42 in June compared to 47 in May, but came with their own challenges.
Of the 42 crisis incidents, only four were handled by the Crisis Outreach and Support Team (COAST), while 38 were handled by front-line officers.
Sutton explained that the issue came down to timing, with many crisis calls coming in at times when crisis workers weren’t available, and gave examples such as 11 p.m., 1 a.m., 3 a.m. and on weekends.
“You can’t say ‘We only want our mental health people to be in crisis from eight to eight,’” she said.
To help overcome that hurdle, Sutton recently applied for a grant from the provincial government, and while she couldn’t disclose the dollar value, she hopes it will help fund the services partners whose crisis workers join officers on COAST.
“We have COAST workers working every day for 12 hours a day. So seven days a week we have a police officer assigned, but we don’t always have a crisis worker,” she said.
Sutton explained that while the officers are working 12-hour shifts, the crisis workers are working 10-hour shifts, and she hopes the grant will help to staff the extra two hours.
Despite all the challenges facing the service, Van Dyke expressed his appreciation later in his monthly chief’s update.
Through connections with Bradford’s Deputy Mayor Raj Sandhu, on July 17 Van Dyke provided a tour of the South Division facilities to a police superintendent for Punjab, India who is in charge of 40 police stations.
“It was so he could kind of see the difference between what his world is like and what my world is like, and there’s a significant difference. We have it good here,” he said.
