Police responses to weapons related calls have been steadily increasing over the past five years.
The Chatham-Kent Police Services released their 2019 Community Patrol Branch Report at Tuesday’s Board meeting.
In 2019, police responded to 72 weapons-related calls, an increase of 84 per cent since 2015, which saw only 39 calls. In 2018, 60 weapons-related calls were made.
Sgt. Paul Pomajba, who gave the report, said he had no explanation for the increase of weapons-related calls.
Const. Renee Cowell, Public Information Officer for C-K police, said they do not keep statistics on what kind of weapons were involved in the calls.
A weapons-related call can involve anything from a pipe to firearms.
Last year, the number of Traffic Unit callouts increased by 45 per cent, from 22 in 2018 to 32 in 2019, with 12 fatalities.
Jenna Cocullo, Local Journalism Initiative, The Chatham Voice