CRIME ON RISE IN CITY

City police officers faced more crime last year, most of those crimes
were drug related and a more addictive, more damaging drug is coming,
Chief Terry McLaren said.

The snapshot of the state of crime in the city was part of McLaren's
address to the Peterborough Rotary Club at the Holiday Inn yesterday.

Overall, officers dealt with 12.2 per cent more crime in 2006 than
2005, McLaren said.

"I'm not really alarmed at the increase of the crime stats itself
because a lot of it was self-generated by our officers making arrests
on criminal offences," McLaren said.

"When we look at the total statistics and we look at the root causes,
it all boils down to one thing. It's not a strange phenomenon, every
community is suffering from it, it's the increased usage in drugs."

Aside from drug seizures, McLaren said, the rise in robberies,
break-ins and thefts from vehicles can be traced to people trying to
feed their drug habit.

"Cannabis seems to be the drug of choice, followed by crack cocaine,"
McLaren said. Crack cocaine seizures increased 112 per cent in 2006,
McLaren said.

"One of the things we, as police, are terrified about is if this
crystal meth reaches our community," McLaren said. "Once it gets ahold
of you, you just can't let go of it."

The recent discoveries of crystal meth laboratories in Gooderham and
Durham Region, he said, are ominous signs that the highly addictive
drug is coming to the city.

"We're not that far away from having it here," McLaren
said.

The chief said intelligence officers are working with other police
forces, including the RCMP, to track the drug and try to develop a
strategy to prevent it taking root.

Despite crime being on the rise, McLaren said, crime in the downtown
core stayed almost the same, rising only 1.2 per cent from the
previous year.

"Downtown is very, very safe," McLaren said.

He attributed the rise in the downtown crime to drug arrests connected
to major drug projects and bail violation arrests by the bail offender
management unit.

"Most of that is downtown," McLaren said.

Last year, police arrested 355 people for bail violations, McLaren
said.

"That's a tremendous amount, that's total disrespect for the law.
These are all people already before the courts," McLaren said.

"We believe we have a responsibility to our community to ensure that
if these people are out on a court order that they do not commit
additional offences and we're doing our darndest to try and stop that."

The complete crime statistics will be released at next month's meeting
of the police board, McLaren said.

Crime snapshot for 2006 in

Peterborough and Lakefield:

Total crime: up 12.2 per cent

Robberies: up 8.2 per cent

Break-ins: up 42.8 per cent

Thefts from vehicles: up 68.7 per cent

Crack cocaine: up 112.1 per cent