THUNDER BAY –Thunder Bay Police Chief Sylvie Hauth says based on what she believes the city’s population actually is, her department should probably have a lot more staff members to help deal with an ever increasing demand for service.
Hauth said the city, with its transient population factored in, is realistically 135,000 in size, about 15 per cent more than the 118,000 designated by Statistics Canada.
Add in the fact that calls for service have been on the rise for the past five years – they were already at 50,000 as of October, just shy of last year’s total of 51,141 -- and the police services is facing a tremendous strain on its resources.
Crime doesn’t stop just because there aren’t enough officers to deal with it at a given time of day, Hauth said.
“We’re a 24-hour society, with 24-hour demands on our police service,” Hauth said, adding it would cost about $1.2 million to hire a six-officer guns and gangs unit to focus on one of the city’s most pressing criminal issues, something she would like to do next year; pending budget approval.
There are at present 227 sworn officers on staff, with 103 civilian employees making up the rest of the 330-member complement.
TBPS added eight officers last year, a recommendation stemming from an OIPRD report looking into systemic racism and the police department.
Implementing all the OIPRD recommendations cost TBPS an additional $1.79 million.
The city’s struggle with substance abuse and addiction is putting increased pressure on the police service, who are being called more often to deal with incidents arising from drug abuse and mental health issues.
In fact, only 17 per cent of the calls for service are criminal offences in nature.
It led at-large Aldo Ruberto to question what the public should do.
“Who should we call to address those kinds of incidents?” Ruberto asked.
Hauth responded with several suggestions, including Shelter House’s Street Outreach Service and other service providers. Expanded enforcement by the city’s licence and enforcement officers, including expanded hours, would also help.
Deputy Police Chief Ryan Hughes, responding to Mayor Bill Mauro’s question about adding front-line officers, said police plan to launch a department reorganization on Jan. 1, that will create two new units to deal with the changing nature of crime in Thunder Bay.
“We’ve disbanded our beat unit and we’re going to reorganize as a community-oriented response unit, which will target problem areas in the north core, south core or wherever they’re needed, with any issues,” Hughes said.
“Our community response team has been disbanded as of Dec.31 and a new unit will be formed under the criminal investigation branch as a break-and-enter and armed robbery unit, due to the high amount of robberies that we’re seeing yearly and the amount of break and enters that are happening annually.”
Hauth added the increase in violent crime, with 1,946 incidents in total in 2018, takes its toll on staffing, further exacerbating the police service’s abilities to conduct its investigations.
“People get fatigued. People get tired,” Hauth said.
Adding to those frustrations is a lack of movement on the part of the provincial government, which has changed grant funding regulations in the past year and are slow to respond to requests, hampering Hauth’s ability to set an accurate budget.
