Peel votes to boost police on streets
Regional council and its two mayors concerned about well-being of community
Peel Regional Council has voted to have more police officers on the streets — to cope with the rise in violent crime.
Currently, there are 137.9 police officers for every 100,000 people in Peel Region — a gap Brampton Mayor Linda Jeffrey says will only widen with population growth.
The motion, brought forward by Jeffrey and seconded by Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie on Sept. 13, is part of the community safety and well-being plan passed earlier in the summer.
“I know it’s a complex issue and I ap- preciate there are other societal issues that we need to face,” Jeffrey said.
“At the same time, I know that in order to support the plan in the report (police) have indicated they need additional staff.”
While the decision to increase police enforcement in the region was unanimous, the motion received some heavy criticism from councillors Pat Saito, Gael Miles and Brampton mayoral candidate John Sprovieri — Jeffrey’s opponent.
“I can fully support more officers on the street,” Saito said.
“But we have heard from the chief and previous chiefs that if you bring in another 100 officers — or whatever that number is — when it’s spread out over the shifts, over the divisions, the actual number of officers at any one time is not 100 officers — it’s a very small number and probably will not make a huge dent in preventing those violent crimes.”
Crombie acknowledged Saito’s comments but said this motion is a “good start” — along with organizing a summit to discuss rising crime with the chief of Peel Regional Police and other stakeholders, likely to be held on Oct. 2. Wards 7 and 8 councillor Miles added there isn’t enough room at police colleges to train more officers and expressed her concern with the lack of street checks this year — one, compared to 30,000 last year. “Where should we be putting our resources?” she said.
“It’s not all about enforcement or cops on the street — it’s about the broader picture.”
Sprovieri agreed with Miles and said there may be a correlation between rising crime and lack of street checks, adding that Toronto’s higher ratio of police per capita hasn’t necessarily limited violent crime.
“More police may help to respond and catch the crooks after the crime, but the problem is they put them in jail for a short while and then they’re out on the street,” Sprovieri said. He added he didn’t have a problem supporting the motion — it would sound like “Peel Regional Council is doing something about crime” — but reiterated that throwing money on the problem won’t solve it.
“The problem remains that there’s a huge problem with these gangs,” Sprovieri said.
“They live in a dream world. They’re not having to go to work like most people do — they just want to sell their drugs and live their adventurous easy life — that’s the mentality.”
Peel Regional Council has asked the chief of Peel Regional Police and the board to identify resource shortfalls needed for adequate and effective policing in the next overall 2019 budget requirement.