Sobering numbers

Having more than a thousand bottles of mouthwash stolen each year shows just how bad Thunder Bay’s alcohol problem is, says the city’s chief of police.

Thunder Bay Police Service Chief J.P. Levesque and Deputy Chief Andy Hay attended their first Police Service Board meeting since they were hired into their new positions. The board members held the meeting in the Oliver Paipoonge town hall on Tuesday as part of an annual tradition.

Board members reviewed the 2010 Annual Report and found that alcohol related arrests remained exceptionally high. In the past year, police issued 9,000 provincial offences, not including traffic, and 74 per cent of those were for liquor license offences.

Levesque said this problem is so prevalent that people, desperate for their fix, steal more than a thousand bottles of mouthwash every year.

“It’s a sad commentary but it is just the reality,” Levesque said. “We rank, unfortunately, number one in the province and probably close to number one in the country for alcohol-related arrests. I’ve said this before we really need to get a handle on our social issues before we see any decreases in our violent crime numbers.

“Certainly, the provincial government has to get involved and to some degree the municipality but it is a health care issue and a social issue. It becomes a policing issue when these individuals are intoxicated and they cannot take care of themselves and get involved in criminality. “

Levesque said they continue to arrest the same 40 people repeatedly for being intoxicated because there isn’t enough done to help them.

Levesque said the crime severity index continued to rank Thunder Bay high despite the number of crimes dropping and having only two murders compared to the four in 2009.

Property crime made about 63 per cent of the total number of crime in the city last year followed by violent crime at 19 per cent. Both types of crimes saw a drop from the previous year. 

“It might sound somewhat simplified but a lot of (the number of crimes reported) depends on who is incarcerated during the year,” he said. “We tend to see people who are recidivist. They get out of jail and then they get back into the property crime cycle. Like I said it depends on who’s in or out of jail.”

Levesque said the police clearance rate remained a point of pride for the force with more than 48 per cent.

The chief also brought back another tradition – bringing recently promoted staff into the meeting to meet with board members.

He said he wasn’t sure why they stopped doing it but wanted to bring it back because it meant a lot to recognize the staff members who worked hard for their promotions.

He also added that police would be looking at ways for people to report crimes online but they still needed to work out the kinks.

Thunder Bay Police Service Board chair Joe Virdiramo said he was surprised to hear that so many bottle of mouthwash was stolen each year and the amount of charges and arrests made related to intoxication.

“We have brought in the drug strategy co-ordinator and she will be working with the city to deal with this,” Virdiramo said. “As a city council and as a police board we are aware that there’s an issue and that issue needs to be dealt with.  The resources taken from the police services in dealing with intoxicated individuals could be doing other things.”