Working together with the community and its various organizations and agencies is a key to the Guelph Police Service’s success, and people can expect more of the same in the coming years, says the new chief.
“The road we’ve been travelling is actually serving us well,” said Chief Bryan Larkin following last week’s release of the service’s 2011 Annual Report.
Larkin took over the role of chief in the spring of 2012, but served as deputy chief for the best part of 2011.
Over the coming years, his plans for the police service include a continued emphasis on community engagement to continue to improve community safety.
The annual report once again highlighted Guelph’s low Crime Severity Index, which gives Guelph the distinction of being “the safest city of its size in Canada,” it said.
“We continue to keep this distinction,” said Larkin.
“We continue as a community to be very vital and safe and healthy.”
While violent crime did see a rise with more sexual assaults, aggravated assaults and even a homicide, the reduction in non-violent crime reduced the overall Crime Severity Index.
And as Larkin pointed out, a rise in reported crime may not always be bad.
An increase in sexual assaults is, on the surface, alarming, but “we see that as a positive in that people are comfortable reporting it,” he said.
When it comes to crime in Guelph, the city seems to be trending in the right direction, he said. But he would not give the police service all the credit.
“The reality is that even the designation of the safest community, it’s not solely the police service; it’s a collective approach,” Larkin said.
The report covers the year that was the mid-point for the service’s current 2010 to 2012 business plan. That plan will soon be wrapping up, and a plan that includes the next three years will be coming out. That plan will include a strong focus on that collective approach, Larkin said.
“If we have engaged citizens, chances are there’s going to be a heightened sense of safety,” he said.
Larkin offered the police service’s drug strategy as an example of a collaborative approach to dealing with a policing issue.
The service is involved in the Wellington Guelph Drug Strategy Committee, which includes 25 community partners. Members are also involved in at least five other partnerships, the release said. The emphasis is on rehabilitation and referrals to treatment, rather than just enforcement, said Larkin.
In general, the emphasis is and will continue to be on proactive policing, he said.
“We’re really focused on front-line visibility,” he said, noting that having officers on the front line in neighbourhoods can be a positive deterrent for crime.
Policing should also be intelligence-led, he said. Officers should communicate with community members and stakeholders to deal proactively with issues, and should use available data to anticipate crime trends.
It is the sort of policing that happens during Project Safe Semester, a project aimed at curbing alcohol-related crime and disorder at the busy beginning of the school year.
That is just one of the many initiatives noted in the “Neighbourhood Policing” section of the report. Others include neighbourhood teams dedicated to particular areas of the city, special event policing for things like St. Patrick’s Day, community presentations provided by the fraud and technological crime units, and work by the downtown liaison officer with the city to deter crime downtown.
These are the sorts of things the service will be building on going forward, said Larkin.
“We want to enhance the tools that our officers have,” he said.
The bike patrol season went well, and the service will be looking at enhancing those patrols. There will also be more foot patrols in the downtown, he said.
To help with road safety, which “continues to be a significant priority,” the service is hoping to put two motorcycle patrols on the road next year, Larkin said.
As “an extension of the neighbourhood watch,” the service is looking at introducing “crime mapping” that would let people go online and track what crimes have happened in different areas of the city.
The strategy would help bridge the divide between perception and reality, explained Larkin.
“It’s a transparency piece,” he said. “It’s about actually raising awareness about what we’re doing.”
Adding to the online initiatives, the service also hopes to introduce online reporting for minor crimes, as well as electronic ticketing, which would free up more time for officers to do proactive police work, said Larkin.
“The end goal is to find more time for the front-line officer to do more work with the neighbourhoods they police,” he said. There will always be an element of policing that’s reactive, but we know when we’re proactive  . . . we can prevent, we can deter and we can solve crime.”
The full 2011 Annual Report can be viewed online at www.guelphpolice.com/crime-statistics-2/.