The Grey Bruce OPP detachment reports receiving 39 COVID-related calls in May and June.
“Those are occurrences where members of the public have contacted us, perhaps regarding social distancing or large groups of individuals,” reported Insp. Jennifer Ormsby, detachment commander with Grey Bruce OPP to the Grey Highlands Police Services Board at a board meeting held in late July.
Insp. Ormsby said during the two month period, officers increased patrols in targeted locations, which included the local grocery stores.
"Officers were visible during senior shopping hours, just to remind the public to be thoughtful and considerate of other members of the public,” she explained.
According to the detachment commander, during the pandemic, Grey Highlands saw a dramatic drop in both violent and property crime, which Insp. Ormsby believes is in direct correlation with the COVID closure.
“People were staying home and not moving around much and I believe that is why those numbers have gone down,” she said.
From May to the end of June, the detachment report shows six violent charges under the Criminal Code, compared to 13 in the same time period last year.
Officers placed nine property crime charges, compared to 44 in the same time period in 2019.
The local detachment also took the opportunity provided by the pandemic to ensure all registered sex offenders in the area were indeed at the residence that they had reported to authorities.
Insp. Ormsby reports that officers checked on 41 registered sex offenders in the Grey Bruce OPP detachment area in May.
“Sex offenders have to report in on a yearly basis, so we sent officers out to those residents to ensure they were, in fact, residing there,” Insp. Ormsby said.
As the region moved into stage three of the COVID reopening strategy, Insp. Ormsby said officers have resumed their regular patrols, a lot of which involves managing busy highways.
“We are doing a lot of active enforcement, particularly on Highway 10 with stunt drivers,” she said.
Incidents of stunt and dangerous driving have become a growing concern for local OPP officers. A stunt driving charge is laid when a motorist is caught driving 50 km/h or more over the posted speed limit.
As of Aug. 10, 165 drivers had been charged with stunt driving in Grey-Bruce. In 2019, a total of 190 drivers were charged with stunt driving.
“We have drilled down on the data to look at where these people are coming from. Our stats show us that they are coming out of the GTA, so we will be targeting messaging to those areas,” Ormsby added.
Paul McQueen, who is the warden for Grey County, the mayor of Grey Highlands, and a member of the police services board, said everyone needs to slow down, no matter where they are coming from.
“This needs to be communicated to both sides. We all need to take a breath and slow down,” McQueen said, adding that this time of year, local highways will also start to see a lot of agriculture equipment moving around.
“From a farmer perspective, we are coming into a busy time with the cereal crops. We are going to start seeing some of the larger equipment on these roads,” he added.
McQueen said the region has already seen one farm equipment related death in Clearview this year, and he does not want the trend to continue.
“I know some drivers don’t experience these vehicles in the urban areas and when they come up here you can tell it frustrates certain individuals,” he said. “What I am finding is that farm vehicles, if you are trying to turn, you are best to wait for the traffic to go by.”
