Stephen Vance, Staff
Grey County OPP Detachment Commander Inspector Michael Guilfoyle paid a visit to Meaford’s council at their February 1 meeting to provide his year-end report for 2015.
Inspector Guilfoyle told council that 2015 saw a slight increase in violent crimes, and significant increases in property crime and fraud. The number of drug crimes in 2015 remained virtually unchanged from the year prior, but trouble with youth is on the increase.
“Assaults, we had a fairly substantial increase of 70 percent, a number of those have been domestically related,” advised Guilfoyle. “In property crime, we’ve seen some substantial increases.” He noted that the data for property crimes will change before the 2015 numbers are finalized given the recent success by the OPP in solving a series of break-ins and thefts late in the year.
As the inspector was updating council about the success in solving the recent rash of break-ins, Grey County OPP issued a media release that provided an update on the charges that have been laid thus far.
“As of today we have laid 48 criminal charges against three individuals, we’ve seized property that we are still identifying from various break-ins and thefts, and by the end of it, it looks like we will be solving approximately 30 to 35 break and enter and thefts that have occurred in the municipality. And, it’s interesting to note, we will have also solved a few from elsewhere in the province. The investigation is still ongoing and we’re still identifying property each and every day from various areas.”
The significant increase in fraud cases can be largely attributed to online fraud, such as the recent Canada Revenue Agency scam that snared some local residents, the inspector told council.
Guilfoyle noted that trouble with Meaford youth is on the rise, and he said that youth-related initiatives will be at the top of the priority list for the school liaison officer in the coming months. Trouble with youth has gone from 25 incidents in 2014 to 45 in 2015.
“Constable Barfoot is the school resource officer, and she’s started community mobilization on her own, she’s starting to meet with various groups in the community and the schools to identify needs for children. She’s started a hockey stick collection at her office to get some hockey sticks to underprivileged children, and try some fun activities for them. So that’s an area that she will be focusing her resources on for the next while,” explained Guilfoyle.
Another area of concern noted by Inspector Guilfoyle is the large number of 911 hang-ups experienced in the municipality. Though the number of hang-up incidents decreased from 195 in 2014 to 135 in 2015, Guilfoyle says that is still far too many, and he is asking residents to ensure that their mobile devices are locked when not in use to prevent accidental dialing.
“We’ve done a lot of messaging on this, and we’ve asked Constable Barfoot to focus on this at the school level as well. We’re hoping to get the kids, who all have cell phones, to take the message home to mom and dad to lock them so they don’t accidentally dial 911 because that’s a lot of resources that are utilized, that could be utilized in a better manner in the community.”
