The numbers are in for what kept Timmins Police busy in 2017.
At the May meeting of the Timmins Police Services board, Chief John Gauthier presented the department’s annual report.
The package breaks down what each department achieved and is used to development the board’s business plan.
Highlights of the report are:
Traffic
Overall, there were 960 crashes reported to police, which is a drop from 1,047 in 2016.
According to the report, the top intersection for collisions in 2017 was Brunette Road and Algonquin Boulevard.
Some breakdowns of the collisions reported are:
• There were no fatal crashes in 2017, compared to one in 2016
• There were 105 collisions with personal injury, down from 117 in 2016.
• There were 33 crashes involving pedestrians, which is up from 22 in 2016.
• There was one crash involving a cyclist, down from seven in 2016.
• 26 impaired driving charges were laid, down from 44 in 2016.
• There were seven impaired-related collisions, which is down from 13 in 2016.
Drug and asset forfeiture
Last year, the drug enforcement unit executed 18 search warrants, with 41 individuals arrested and 155 charges laid.
“Over the last couple of years, I can say we’re seeing more of an increase in misuse and abuse of pharmaceutical type of drugs…it’s prescription medication, I think, that’s being misused and abused,” said Gauthier.
The breakdown of what was seized last year is:
• 303.9 grams of cocaine, street value of $30,390
• 16.7 grams of crack-cocaine, street value of $1,670
• 12.6 grams of crystal meth, street value of $1,260
• .5 patch of fentanyl, street value of $400
• 107 tablets of Percocet/Oxycodone, street value of $4,280
• 8 tablets of Morphine, street value of $320
• 2,445 tablets of Xanax, street value of $24,450
• 455 tablets of Clonazepam, street value of $4,550
• 14,395 tablets of methamphetamine, street value of $143,394
• 22 grams of heroin, street value $17,600
• 860.9 grams of cannabis-marijuana, street value $8,609
• 107 grams of cannabis resin (shatter), street value $8,560
• 15.2 grams of cannabis (hash), street value $8,560
• 76 marijuana plants, street value $76,000
• $24,629 in cash
Criminal Investigations
“The members and the men and women who work in CID are responsible for investigating major occurrences and crimes such as homicides, attempted murder, serious assaults, frauds, other serious criminal offences,” explained Gauthier.
In 2017, the officers completed 2,614 reports, which is an increase from 2,216 in 2016.
There were also:
• 98 sexual assault investigations, a decrease from 108 in 2016
• 490 charges laid from criminal investigations, down from 504 in 2016
E-Crime
There is a new face in the section after one of the officers moved to another police service.
Insp. Henry Dacosta said the current officer is “well-versed for the position” and will be a computer forensic examiner and able to analyze mobile devices and computers.
“We are progressing in the area of cybercrime and our intention is to move forward, to educate our frontline officers. As you know we’re going from a paper format to digital, how do you preserve evidence, how do you explain that; so providing the highest level of service to our people in Timmins when we do attend calls and our officers have the knowledge of how to seize that digital information and preserve it,” Dacosta said.
“And when we have to take it a that higher level, we will have that specialty in-house to extract that information from via text, email or whatever type of device.”
Community patrol
There are four platoons, with each having about 10 constables per platoon, as well as one staff sergeant and one sergeant.
Last year community patrol officers were responsible for:
• 3,516 provincial offence notices
• 2,936 criminal and drug charges
• 38,861 tasks assigned
• 21,921 reports completed
Situation Table
Every Wednesday, Gauthier said a group meets in the department’s community room.
“The situation table is comprised of various community organizations, including South Cochrane Addiction Services, CMHA, TDH, Timmins Native Friendship Centre, Victim Services, Nishnawbe-Aski Police Service, probation and parole and several more. The group meets weekly to identify individuals in the community at acute elevated risks and they take steps to ensure that individuals are connected with the appropriate services,” he said.
Last year, 79.7 per cent of the 60 cases referred to the board originated from the police service.
Of those, 61.67 per cent had the overall risk lowered.
“That is good news, I think that if you take that, if you break that down, you certainly know that it’s a step in the right direction. We are getting these people to the agencies and resources that are required,” Gauthier said.
For people whose risk wasn’t lowered, 30 per cent at still at risk, five per cent are unable to be located or have relocated, and three per cent were deemed to not be at an acute elevated risk.
Complaints
“We have a sergeant in charge of the professional standards unit, he does all of the internal investigations whether they are chief’s complaints that are initiated by myself or the complaints that arrive to us from the OIPRD,” Gauthier said.
He also explained that complaints that the service receives from the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD) are sent back to them for review.
The break down for complaints in 2017 is:
• 13 chief’s complaints; 11 were substantiated and two were unsubstantiated.
• 16 public complaints; one was substantiated, eight unsubstantiated, one did proceed for time limit laps, two weren’t in public interest to proceed, one complaint withdrawn, and there were three customer service resolutions.
You can read the full report for 2017 here.
