The Barrie Police Service has released its annual report for 2022 and numbers are up in areas of concern, with unnecessary hang-ups being an ongoing issue.
The report is the first under Police Chief Rich Johnston, following the retirement of Kimberley Greenwood, who had been at the helm since March 2013.
Barrie police communications co-ordinator Peter Leon touched on some of the highlights in the 23-page report.
“The annual report has always been designed to show what your police service is involved with," he said. "It isn't always a car driving down the street or stopping a violator on the side of the road. There is so much more to modern police work than just responding to calls for service, and these reports allow us to inform the community as to what that entails.”
Statistical highlights from the 2022 report show a rise in some categories, particularly violent crime. There was a rise in all assaults as 2022 saw 1,181 as opposed to the previous year’s 925. Assaults detailed in the report refer to three levels, including assault causing bodily harm, aggravated assault and assault with a weapon.
There were 15 more forcible confinements than a year ago with 33 in 2022, as well as five attempted murders, with none in 2021.
As for personnel changes within the city's police department, the staffing complement in 2022 included 245 sworn members and 121 civilians. This included seven new officers as well as 23 civilian employees and cadets.
Staffing salaries, benefits and overtime made up 94 per cent of the Barrie police budget.
As far as travel, officers logged more than 1.6 million kilometres in a variety of police vehicles, which includes cruisers, boats, bikes and other vehicles.
Calls for service were down in 2022, from 71,151 compared to 73,696 the year prior. The top five were, in order of most to least, 911 calls or hang-ups, needing police assistance, traffic enforcement, vehicle collisions, and unwanted persons.
While hang-up calls may be in error, Leon said they still tie up police resources.
“Anytime we get a 911 call, whether it's a hang-up or a misdial, we have to check into it to be sure the person on the other end is OK," he said. "It does take time, because we have to try to contact the caller and determine whether there is an emergency or not."
Those types of calls were up five per cent in 2022 from the year before, Leon added.
The report also highlighted a chilling set of numbers involving human trafficking. In 57 investigations, 84 charges were laid, with 30 victims being assisted.
These types of numbers are always a concern, Leon said.
“Highway 400 has always been something we have to watch," he said. "We are part of a joint force with the OPP in monitoring the human-trafficking situation and that means the resources available to our investigators becomes that much more powerful.
"We’re very fortunate to have officers who are dedicated to human trafficking," Leon added. "It is not an easy job in any way.”
The ongoing partnership with Ontario Provincial Police is called the Provincial Human Trafficking Intelligence-led Joint Forces Strategy (IJFS), and includes the OPP, Barrie police and law-enforcement agencies from Sudbury, Thunder Bay, Ottawa, Toronto, and Six Nations, as well as many other cities and Indigenous communities across the province.
In 2022, eight victims came forward who were exploited in the sex trade through an escort agency, the report says. Due to the wrap-around community support established through the investigation, all eight victims attended court and testified and are now being supported in their recovery.
On June 8, 2022, Barrie police and the OPP’s Central Region community street crime unit charged 11 people with 104 offences under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and Criminal Code as part of a joint drug-trafficking investigation in Simcoe County, dubbed Project Holcus.
Police say the investigation removed more than 5,000 street-level doses of fentanyl and resulted in searches in Springwater Township, Barrie and across the Greater Toronto Area, including Toronto, Whitby and Ajax.
“I spoke with an investigator who is involved in these busts and they said it takes thousands of investigative hours to complete them,” Leon said. “Just getting to the point where you can make arrests and charge individuals is a significant amount of work.”
The full 2022 police report is available by clicking here.
