Stephen Vance, Staff
Violent crimes are down, and property crime and fraud are up in Meaford in the first quarter of this year. That according to Grey County OPP Detachment Commander Inspector Michael Guilfoyle, who made his quarterly presentation to Meaford’s council at their April 18 meeting.
Inspector Guilfoyle told council that in the first quarter of 2016 police have been busy with the continued investigation of a string of local break-ins that resulted in several charges against three individuals, and recovered stolen property from as far away as Kenora.
He said that his officers have dealt with a wide range of crimes – from arson to abduction to assaults – so far this year, but he is particularly concerned with the proliferation of scams that have snared area residents in recent months. Fourteen cases of fraud were investigated by the Meaford detachment in the first quarter of this year, up from just three in the same period last year.
“I can tell you in particular, unfortunately (even with) as much messaging as we have put out there, as much as my community safety officer has put on seminars, we still have folks who become victimized by fraud,” Inspector Guilfoyle told council. “The majority of these are online, one of the most recent scams of course is the Canadian Revenue Agency scam. We’ve put out in our messaging that if Canada Revenue Agency wants to contact you, they’re not going to send you an email, and they’re not going to ask for money to be transferred via some bank service. Unfortunately, we’ve had a number of people that have been victimized with that.”
Inspector Guilfoyle told council that the first quarter of 2016 has also seen an increase in mischief incidents such as graffiti. He said that neighbouring communities such as Collingwood and The Blue Mountains have also seen an increase in this ‘tagging’ activity, and his officers are working with officers in those communities to find the culprits.
Also on the increase this year are domestic disturbance calls which have nearly doubled in the first few months of this year when compared to the same period last year. The inspector noted that domestic disturbance calls are very time-consuming for his officers when compared to other types of calls.
On our roads, Inspector Guilfoyle told council that in Grey County the first three months of the year have seen fewer charges in virtually all categories when compared to the same period in 2015. Speeding, seat belt infractions, and impaired driving are all down by more than 60 percent in the first quarter of this year, and distracted driving – an infraction that has been focus of police over the past year has decreased by 95 percent with just four charges laid in the entire county so far this year, compared to more than 80 in the same period last year.
Overall, Inspector Guilfoyle told council that the first three months of 2016 have seen the same number of police calls as the same quarter of 2015.
