Violent crime drops in Sudbury

Crime rates in Greater Sudbury were down significantly in 2011, including a drop in violent crime of around seven per cent, Statistics Canada reported July 24.

The crime severity rate, which measures the overall severity of criminal activity, dipped by eight per cent last year, while crimes in most categories were down. There were fewer arsons, serious sexual assaults, assaults overall, gun crimes, kidnapping and forcible confinement charges, as well as arsons.

The trends in Sudbury reflected good news in most Canadian cities, which saw an overall drop of six per cent, with crime rates hitting their lowest levels since 1972. Abbotsford, B.C., witnessed the biggest drop in violent crime, at 17 per cent, while Gatineau. Que., saw the biggest increase at 14 per cent.

Greater Sudbury Police Chief Frank Elsner said he’s pleased with the trends he’s seeing in the city. He said it’s a result of several initiatives the force had undertaken, some of which benefitted from provincial funding.

“Over the last couple of years, we weren’t very happy with the way our crime (stats) were trending. So we put some new initiatives in place,” Elsner said.
An example is the police’s Break, Enter and Robbery Unit, which focuses on property crimes that were becoming an increasing concern in the city.

“Our B.E.A.R. Unit was a direct response to rising property crimes we were seeing,” he said. “And what we’ve seen is a reverse in the trend. Not only did we have less property crimes, we were solving more of them, which, obviously, was exactly what we wanted to see.”

The drop in crime severity rates and overall violent crime was at least partially a result of funding from a provincial program – the same fund Toronto is using to tackle gang crime.

“We put a lot of our resources into tackling some of the violent crime in our community,” he said. “And we’ve seen those numbers come down, as well. So we’re very happy to see that. And we’re thankful for those funds.”

Elsner also credits the Zone 30 initiative, which sees officers work with community leaders in areas of the city with chronically high crime rates.

“That’s the third component – community mobilization,” he said. “That’s where we engage the community in helping us find solutions.”

A great example is the Louis Street area of Sudbury. June Davis, who heads up the Louis Street Community Association, said in an interview in the late spring that police efforts have led to a transformation of her neighborhood.

“People are starting to see Louis Street in a new way,” Davis said, as she toured the area with Ward 12 Coun. Joscelyne Landry-Altmann in May. “There’s always been a stigma that maybe people who live in this environment are very lazy or whatever, that they just sit around all day. That’s not the case at all. There are so many hard working people, educated people, families who live here.”

At one time, police were getting 12 calls a day to come to the neighbourhood; in May, they received just one call. A drug-bust in mid-April was a catalyst for the transformation, but it was a result of an evolving relationship with the neighbourhood and city police, she said.

“We’ve been working with the police to clean up our area,” David said. “So (the massive drug bust) was something that happened over several months, us working with them, them gaining information. And when that happened, the community celebrated because it’s something we did not want in our community.

Today, she said police will walk the beat in the community, talking to people, seeing what’s going on. It’s those relationships that have led to the remarkable drop in crime of all sorts.

“The attitude is changing,” David said. “People traditionally have looked at (police) as enforcers. But they are also working toward community wellness and they have a responsibility, too, to see that these people are being referred to the agencies and services they need.”

Landry-Altmann said Louis Street residents are proud of their community, and credits the work of people like Davis and officers who walk the beat.

“It used to be, if people saw a police officer, they would scatter,” she said. “Now people come out, say hi. It’s a total turnaround ... And it’s the vision of the chief.”

For his part, Elsner says police hope to expand the Louis Street model.
“There’s been huge drops (in the crime rate) in areas like that – even in calls for service have dropped dramatically,” he said. “So we’re really studying the results there to see how we can expand it city-wide.”

The StatsCan report wasn’t all positive, however. Charges related to child pornography, drunk driving and drug offences are on the rise. But Elsner says it’s a matter of more people being caught, rather than more people committing crimes.

“The number of investigations into those sorts of crimes has gone up,” he said. “Now we’re putting more resources into it. So child pornography offences, drugs, drunk driving, those types of offences … the more resources we put into those investigations, the more people we’re going to catch.”

See the full report at www.statcan.gc.ca.

Posted by Arron Pickard