Over the past three months, Collingwood OPP has taken $25,000 worth of illegal drugs off of Collingwood’s streets.
At a meeting of the Collingwood OPP Detachment Board on Oct. 17, detachment commander Insp. Loris Licharson provided Collingwood crime statistics for July, August and September of this year, comparing numbers year-to-date numbers with 2023.
While Licharson does give board members a written, detailed report on the statistics, those figures are not provided to the general public, and he would only speak broadly during the meeting on trends.
“Our numbers are looking fairly good. They’re consistent across the board. Our charges (criminal code and provincial offences) were up in all categories. The troops are making a strong effort out there,” he said, noting assaults are consistent year-over-year.
Property crime was up in September, and there was a bump in theft-under-$5,000 charges. Licharson noted many of the thefts were attributable to gas drive-offs, while 33 per cent of them were bike thefts.
“Shoplifting continues to be a struggle. I think, given the current economic times, a lot of folks are going through it in our society and we’ll probably see that continue,” he said.
The Collingwood OPP Street Crime Unit investigated 36 occurrences resulting in 73 Criminal Code charges.
Those investigations led to the seizure of controlled substances such as cocaine and crystal meth. The street value of drugs seized in Collingwood/Blue Mountains in the three-month period was more than $25,000.
The force also seized multiple weapons, including three expandable batons, pepper spray, three loaded handguns and some recovered stolen property valued at $6,500.
“That unit had some significant success in the third quarter,” said Licharson.
Licharson referenced two homicides listed in the quarter. He clarified that homicides didn’t take place in the three-month time period covered in the report, however due to changes through the OPP’s criminal investigation branch that takes the lead on homicides, cold cases are being cleared out and are showing up in the data. He said one homicide took place in 1969; the other in 1977.
“This was pre-OPP years,” he explained. “My concern is that at the end of the year when StatsCan is looking at the Crime Severity Index. I think they’re looking at a fix for that.”
Chair Claire Tucker-Reid noted that last year, the board was told about an uptick in thefts from parked vehicles and frauds impacting seniors, and asked for an update on whether there was an improvement on preventing those types of crimes over the past year.
“Our numbers are fairly stable. We haven’t had sprees like we may have had last year,” said Licharson. He noted there was also an uptick in break-and-enters last year, however one individual was responsible for 18 per cent of the break-and-enters, which can skew the data.
“We caught them, by the way,” he said with a laugh.
During the three-month period, there were 98 RIDE Program efforts. Through those efforts, 29 impaired drivers were charged.
The detachment’s mental health response unit responded to 69 first-response calls with nine total apprehensions. The unit made 82 follow-up contacts, 26 outreach contacts and 102 connections/referrals in the three-month period.
