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Crime numbers don't tell whole story

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Recent crime severity figures reported in the media don’t accurately reflect Brant County’s reality, says Insp. Lisa Anderson.

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The county, like any other community, has its challenges when it comes to law enforcement and social disorder, the Brant OPP detachment commander said in a wide-ranging interview Thursday.

But, when it comes to when it comes to measuring crime severity, she said Brant should not be grouped with its neighbours.

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At issue is a recent published report about Brantford’s crime severity index rating. The index is a measure of the severity of police-reported crime, with the most serious ones, such as homicide and sexual assault, given the most weight.

An area’s crime severity index is calculated by adding up the weighted offences and dividing it by the population with a score that’s standardized to 100 .

According to the report, the crime severity index for the Brantford area, which includes Brant and Six Nations, rose to 92.78 in 2018. The report also notes Brantford had the second-highest CSI score in Ontario, with Thunder Bay claiming the top spot with a crime severity rating of 94.3.

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However, Statistics Canada’s crime severity figures for Brant County alone paint a different picture. Those figures produce a crime severity index rating of 44. The Ontario CSI is 59.9

Making the distinction is important for Anderson, who is coming up on her first anniversary as detachment commander and has been holding town hall meetings in Brant’s various communities. She said including Brant with Brantford’s CSI paints a different picture than they one she presented to residents at the meetings.

Still, when it come to law enforcement, Anderson said she believes people must look results rather than just statistics.

For example, she noted that number of drug charges in Brant County is down this year largely because of the legalization of cannabis.

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“But the drug busts we’ve made – arrests and the seizure of hard drugs like fentanyl – have a huge impact on public safety.”

In late December, Brant OPP, during a traffic stop in St. George, recovered 17 grams of fentanyl  —  enough to provide a lethal dose to 68,000 people.

She said it is also important to recognize that a lot of the calls for service police receive are rooted in social disorder – mental health problems that sometimes escalate into criminal acts.

Mental health-related calls have increased dramatically in the past couple of years, as have domestic violence calls. To help deal with those issues, Brant OPP now has, for the first time, a provincially funded mobile crisis worker, who works with officers sent to mental health-related calls.

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“We, as police officers, can do a lot but we can’t do everything,” Anderson said. “The mobile crisis worker is a huge help because it means we can, in some cases, connect people to the services they need to address the root of the problem.”

As a result, police are able to divert people away from the criminal justice system and into social services, she said.

“One of the things we stressed during our town hall meetings is that policing today is a lot different than it was in past.”

Anderson said policing today requires partnerships and collaboration with social service agencies and strategic use of resources.

Focused patrols are an example of how Brant OPP is using its resources strategically to tackle an issue, she said.

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Brant County had a 250 per cent increase in fatal motor collisions in 2018, with seven people losing their lives.

“We identified the areas that had the highest number of fatalities and PICs (personal injury collisions) over the past five years,” Anderson said. “We then created focused patrols in those areas and worked to change the driving behaviours through education and enforcement.”

The focused patrols have produced results on Highway 403 between Garden Avenue and Rest Acres Road and on Highway 24. There has been a 45 per cent decrease in property damage collisions and a 25 per cent decrease in personal injury collisions on that section of the 403. And the number of property damage and personal injury collisions on Highway 24 are also down compared to last year.

So far this year, there have been no fatal collisions in Brant County.

Anderson said the focused patrols will continue over the next several months on Cockshutt Road and Highways 24 and 54 in a joint partnership with Six Nations police.

“No one wants a speeder in front of their house or on their road but ask yourself whose house are you speeding in front of?” Anderson said.

“Be a responsible road user in the community and do your part to keep everyone safe.”

Vball@postmedia.com
twitter.com/EXPVBall

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