Tragic year in Chatham-Kent

Police report shows 14 fatalities on the region’s roads in 2017, up from 7 in 2016

Chatham-Kent police officers encountered twice the tragedy on local roadways in 2017 than the year previous.

A total of 14 traffic fatalities occurred in Chatham-Kent last year, up from seven in 2016, members of the Chatham-Kent Police Services Board were informed in the Community Patrol Branch 2017 Annual Report presented on Tuesday. Sgt. Matt Stezycki, in charge of the patrol support section, noted the 14 fatalies were among the 36 traffic call-outs, when traffic unit members are called to life-threatening and fatal motor vehicle collisions.

“Of these 36 investigations, we found a significant number of them had to do with distracted driving,” the officer said.

A breakdown of the fatal crashes showed six were related to driver behaviour, three involved alcohol/ drugs, two were not wearing seatbelts and three were suicides. Stezycki told the board more enforcement initiatives, such as the recent Operation CREED, which targeted drivers using hand-held devices, will help the unit meet is goal of reducing fatalities. The number of police interactions with local youth jumped to 1,510 in 2017 from 1,124 in 2016, but CKPS youth officer Const. Derek Shaw told the board with only two years of data collection, it wouldn’t be fair to youth or the community to say youth are causing more problems. He added four to five years of data will be needed to make a more definite conclusion.

The majority of the interactions with youth by police are non-criminal, including such issues as missing youth, family disputes, mental health and referrals, along with warnings and cautions. However, 2017 saw 325 criminal-type incidents involving Chatham-Kent youth, which led to 222 criminal charges against 125 youth. This is compared to 319 criminal-type incidents involving youth, which led to 179 charges against 73 youth. However, Shaw noted, “we do have some repeaters,” citing the fact there is a small number of youth who police have to deal with on a regular basis.

The officer said he has been trying to be at schools as much as possible.

“I think it’s working out in our favour,” he said, adding a lot of students are talking to him and being more cooperative.

The HELP team and mobile crisis team, which includes police officers working with a psychiatric crisis nurse, reviewed, initiated or followed up on 997 mental healthrelated incidents last year.

A total of 48 people were apprehended under the Mental Health Act, and an estimated 90 hours of patrol officers’ time was saved by having the specialized team take over mental health related incidents at the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance.

The critical incident response team may have been required less in 2017 than in 2016, but the 13-member team was called on a full team page-out three times last year compared to none the year before.

The three incidents involving weapons and/or violence, included a call for shots fired that resulted in the discovery of a suicide, the peaceful surrender of a barricaded person and the arrest of an armed subject who had fled the Windsor area.

CIRT was also involved in 13 highrisk search warrants last year, compared to nine in 2016.

Sgt. Paul Pomajba, who leads CIRT, said the unit is on track to surpass the number of high-risk warrants this year, with six already having been executed this year, which will help get more drugs off the street.

Pomajba told board members a $5,300 bounce audio throwable camera, with a durable rubber casing, has been successful, as recently as Monday night, in high-risk search warrants.

He said the camera can be thrown in or placed on a stick to search and clear areas for suspects, such as an attic, prior to sending in an officer.