Local crime down 2.5%, but violent crime rising

Violent crime happened more frequently in Peterborough in the first half of 2017 compared to the first half of 2016, say city police - even though the overall crime rate has decreased.

The Peterborough Police Services Board heard at a meeting Wednesday night the overall crime rate has decreased by 2.5 per cent, in the first six months of 2017 compared to the first half of 2016.

That’s 2,366 reported crimes overall, compared to 2,427 by this time last year (or 61 fewer crimes).

But the more serious crimes were either holding steady or on the rise in 2017, according to the statistics presented to the board.

There was one homicide and three attempted homicides in the first half of 2017, for instance – same as in the first half of 2016.

But there were 10 aggravated assaults reported in the first half of 2017, a number that Deputy Police Chief Tim Farquharson said was unusually high. (There were none reported in the first six months of 2016.)

“Those are the serious assaults – like stabbings,” Farquharson said. “They’re sometimes close to homicides.”

The seriousness of the crimes in Peterborough could be due to factors such as increased drug addiction, Faruqharson said, or the city’s proximity to the GTA.

“There’s no one reason for it,” he said.

Meanwhile, Statistics Canada keeps track of crime severity in cities across the country, and according to their index Peterborough is just above the national and Ontario averages for violent crime.

“We are ahead of the Canadian average and the Ontario average – it’s not quite a position of honour,” Police Chief Murray Rodd told the board.

But Rodd also told the board that the Peterborough Police Service has an exceptionally high clearance rate among similar-sized cities in Canada (that’s the rate at which a crime is solved or otherwise resolved, either through an arrest or other means such as a warning).

The report to the police board offered some details on the crime statistics: There were three separate stabbings in the first half of 2017, for instance.

Police also seized six shotguns and a loaded .38 calibre handgun during drug investigations, along with various drugs including cocaine, fentanyl and heroin.

Yet city police haven’t been as busy in the two neighbouring rural areas they patrol on contract.

Only 3.5 per cent of the crime investigated by police so far this year took place in either the village of Lakefield or Cavan Monaghan Township.

Police also presented the number of calls for service they ’ve received so far this year unrelated to crime (calls over domestic and family disturbances, for instance, or noise complaints).

So far in 2017, police have received 11,981 such calls (23 more than in the first six months of 2016).

But there’s been a 57.7 per cent increase in the number of calls police never got to, in the first half of 2017 compared to the first half of 2016.

There were 317 calls cancelled for lack of available officers, between Jan. 1 and June 30, 2017 (compared to 201, in the first half of 2016).

“The majority of these calls continue to be noise complaints that just can’t be dealt with in a timely manner due to excessive call volumes – and the need to prioritize calls for services,” states the police report to the board.