The Barrie Police Service's annual report, which was made available to the public on Friday, highlights some of the ways money was spent in what is the city's largest yearly expenditure in the municipal operating budget.
The report was touched on at Thursday's Barrie Police Services Board meeting, but more details emerged this morning, such as how the pandemic affected overall costs in 2020.
Barrie police had net expenditures of $61.8 million last year, which was an increase of more than $2 million from the year prior.
In 2020, there were 66,280 calls for service, which was down by 7,832. The report notes that decrease was due to COVID-19 restrictions. Calls for service can include both emergency and non-emergency calls, either of which could result in criminal charges.
Barrie police communications co-ordinator Peter Leon told BarrieToday the annual report shows that 2020 was a year like no other.
"The need to protect our community from criminal activity and from the spread of the COVID-19 virus made 2020 a year to remember and separated it significantly from 2019," he said.
"Our ability to navigate through the pandemic and keep our service healthy was a goal that was identified early and, in doing so, we remained committed to our community to collectively deal with whatever challenges arose," Leon added.
Even though much of 2020 saw people sticking close to home due to the provincial stay-at-home order, city police still responded to many of the usual calls. In 2020, there were 909 calls for assault (up from 2019), with 221 of them being sex-related, which was down by four from the year before.
There were 25 forcible confinements that police investigated, which was up slightly from 2019.
There were two human-trafficking investigations in 2020, down substantially from 65 in 2019. However, the year 2019 also included 43 victims from the large-scale Project Temora investigation.
In 2020, the tactical unit responded to 48 incidents, which was down from 78 in 2019. Calls in 2020 include 20 weapons-related calls and one bomb threat.
The tactical unit is composed of specially trained officers who manage high-risk events. Occurrences can range from a weapon calls and high-risk prisoner escorts to robberies and break-and-enters in progress.
There were 152 calls where the canine unit was needed. Sixty-six of those were attributed to tracking suspects.
With many residents concerned about the relationship with the police inside the community, the community services unit (CSU) is not only responsible for crime prevention, but also placement of school resource officers, and the safety patroller program.
This unit is able to deliver in-person and online presentations, focusing on areas including collaborative partnerships, fraud prevention, human trafficking, residential and commercial security, technology-based crimes, traffic safety and outreach to the vulnerable population.
There are 52 schools covered by Barrie police. The CSU investigated damage to several schools over the summer and fall. The investigations resulted in six arrests and five charges. The unit also solved a $15,000 vandalism incident that occurred at a local high school in October.
On the issue of complaints against city police, that section of the report is detailed with incidents and how many were followed up.
The Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD) is an independent civilian oversight agency that handles public complaints regarding police conduct in Ontario.
In 2020, there were 70 complaints lodged against Barrie police — 38 of those not accepted by the OIPRD.
Of the other 32 complaints that were handled by the OIPRD, 16 were found to be unsubstantiated, five were withdrawn, three were substantiated, and seven were informally resolved with none involving formal discipline.
The 2020 annual report was also made to be more reader-friendly for local residents, said Barrie police Insp. Rob Burke.
"The team's goal was to make sure it was accessible to the public and community partners in an interesting and exciting way," Burke told BarrieToday. "It allows for more features like embedded videos and external links, compared to the PDF or print versions, as well as it offers more interaction for the community."
The report contains photo and video content as well as links for easier navigation. It also allows for live updates when new resources become available.
A full view of the report is available at this link.
