Low crime rate sign of a 'healthy community'

More than a year after her neighbourhood made headlines for a dramatic drop in crime, June Davis says the positive changes in the area have managed to take root.

“Things are going well,” said Davis, who heads the Louis Street Community Association, which has taken a leading role in establishing community programs in the area.

Police at one time were getting 12 calls a day to come to the neighbourhood, but thanks to the work of social service groups in the area and a community policing initiative called Zone 30, that number had dropped to one a month last year.

Davis said key to the change is the regular presence of police in the community, as opposed to having them there to respond to a crime. It allows police to be seen as more part of the community than outsiders called in to deal with problems.

“We have two officers on bicycles ... who come around the community and check things out,” Davis said.

“We meet with them on Thursday mornings in our Positive Connection group. Whenever we're hosting that, they'll come by and we can talk to them about whatever concerns that we have.”

Greater Sudbury Police Deputy Chief Al Lekun said it's that sort of preventative policing that's key to the city's declining crime rate, for both violent and property crime.

Both types of offences dropped in Greater Sudbury in 2012, matching a national trend that has seen crime rates drop steadily over the last decade.

According to figures released July 25 by Statistics Canada, total crime in Sudbury dipped by six per cent in 2012, and by eight per cent overall since 2007.

Violent crime was down four per cent last year, property crime dropped by nine per cent and drug offences dipped by five per cent.

Nationally, total crime and violent offences dropped by three per cent. Overall, Ontario had the lowest rating for crime severity, which reflects the seriousness of crimes being committed, not just the number of offences.

Lekun said while the StatsCan report comes out every year, Sudbury police chart the stats every month.

“So we knew that the numbers, overall, were really good,” Lekun said Tuesday. “We've noticed this trend, obviously, for the last five or six years.”

Cases like Louis Street show the effectiveness of the new policing model used in Sudbury that not only deals with enforcement, but with crime prevention, intervention, education and awareness.

“I think there is an impact, by virtue of the partnerships that we have with community agencies, with organizations and individuals,” Lekun said. “It's a reflection of the work our front-line officers do on a day-to-day basis, not only on enforcement, but on prevention and intervention.”

Other factors play an important role, he said, such as the fact we have an older population less likely to commit crimes, as well as a stronger economy.

“That leads to better education, more employment, demographic factors, and so on and so forth,” he said. “So overall, our community is safer. But when you look at the multitude of factors that contribute to the declining rates, I think it shows we have a very health community.”

Lekun said police are working to redefine how they operate, building closer relationships with social service agencies and focusing more on heading off problems before they become crimes.

Crime may be down, but police are receiving more calls from the public than ever, with only a fraction directly related to a crime.

In fact, he said about 75 per cent of them are “disorder” calls – disputes between people, noise complaints, loitering, etc.

“Only about 25 per cent of those calls for service are really crime-related calls, where a Criminal Code offence has been committed and we have to investigate,” he said. “That's where different skills ... our problem-solving abilities really are important. Because we are there as mediators to address conflict.”

Greater Sudbury's Crime Severity index in 2012 was 71.7, compared to the national rate of 75. The lowest rate among major cities was 47.8 in Quebec City, while the highest was in Regina, at 116. Access the full report at www.statcan.gc.ca.