Collingwood and The Blue Mountains OPP has had a busy quarter.
At a meeting of the Collingwood Police Services Board on Thursday, detachment commander Insp. Loris Licharson provided Collingwood crime statistics for April, May and June of this year, comparing numbers to the same time the previous year.
“This report leaves me with a feeling that we are in good hands,” police services board chair Claire Tucker-Reid said during the meeting.
Between April and June, the detachment’s street crime unit investigated 42 occurrences, with 20 criminal charges laid as a result of those investigations.
Through those investigations, the unit seized 36.4 grams of fentanyl, 143.9 grams of powder cocaine, 3.3 grams of crack cocaine, 500 millilitres of gamma hydroxybutyrate, 44 clonazepam tablets, two loaded handguns, several digital scales and cellphones, a conducted energy weapon, two e-bikes and $3,510 in Canadian currency. The estimated street value of the drugs seized was $14,200.
Licharson said police also assisted with some major investigations, including a string of thefts at Airbnbs, with property valued at more than $5,000 recovered by the unit. A series of five break-ins at the Beaver Valley Outreach Centre was also solved by the street crime unit last quarter.
The force conducted 209 RIDE initiatives between April and June this year, charging 20 people with impaired driving.
The detachment’s mental crisis response team responded to 81 first-response calls and made 450 follow-up and outreach contacts. This is a significant increase from previous reporting from the OPP on the unit.
There were 48 Mental Health Act occurrences attended by OPP officers in June, compared to 29 the previous year.
“We’ve had a significant and ongoing increase in Mental Health Act occurrences,” said Licharson. “We’re about 50 per cent higher than we were in 2021. We’ve seen a steady increase year over year.”
When it comes to violent crimes, there were 13 sexual offences (down 40.9 per cent over last year), 75 assaults/firearm offences (up 49.6 per cent), four robberies (none the previous year), and 41 offences categorized as “other” (same as the previous year).
“Two things jump out to us. One is a significant reduction of sexual assaults. Last year, we had a bump,” said Licharson. “We had an increase in assaults.”
He also noted property crime is down this quarter.
In June, the detachment laid 40.2 per cent more charges overall than the same month last year, with most of the increase due to Highway Traffic Act charges at 171 (a 43.7 per cent increase) and Liquor Licence Act charges at 29 (a 45 per cent increase).
The marine unit has laid seven charges so far this year under the Canada Shipping Act, and three criminal charges.
As part of the presentation, Licharson noted that as of this season, the previous marine partnership between the Collingwood and The Blue Mountain and the Huronia West detachments was dissolved, with each detachment patrolling its own waterways now.
“Is this a cost issue?” asked Mayor Yvonne Hamlin.
Licharson said he couldn’t speak for Huronia West.
“I think it boiled down to them looking at their organizational needs and them making an internal decision,” he said, noting this means neither detachment now has a full-time officer assigned to the marine unit.
“We’ve leaned on the auxiliary unit to help fill in the gaps.”
Also in the quarter, the detachment brought back the hate crimes liaison officer program.
“All (OPP) detachments have selected an experienced member to receive additional training to serve as a subject-matter expert within the detachment,” said Licharson.
