CHARGES UP 24 PER CENT IN 2006

Traffic, Drug Enforcement Accounts for Spike: Chief

LINDSAY-OPS TWP. -- The number of criminal charges in Lindsay and the
former Ops Township jumped by about 24 per cent last year - a good
thing, according to the local chief of municipal police.

Beefed-up drug and traffic enforcement has played a major role in the
increase of 464 from 1,916 total charges in 2005 to 2,380 in 2006,
City of Kawartha Lakes Police Service Chief John Hagarty said Tuesday.

Last year's statistics were made public at Monday's police services
board meeting, where the number of individual offenses and other
numbers are presented every month along with those from previous years
for comparison.

The additional officers hired last year have enabled the municipal
police service to put more emphasis on proactive efforts, Hagarty
said, such as cracking down on illegal drugs and those who do not
drive safely.

"We want to have an impact on our community," he said.

The anticipation is that doing this will affect other statistics
proportionately and the chief said the proof is already in the numbers.

Although front line officers wrote some 1,234 more traffic tickets in
2006 than in 2005 - a jump of a 97 per cent - the number of motor
vehicle collisions on area roads decreased by 78, or 19 per cent, from
497 in 2005 to 419 in 2006.

"Whether they will level out at some point, I don't know...but I don't
believe they will come back to the numbers they were before," Hagarty
said of traffic tickets.

The service has also bumped up its fight against the illegal drug
trade, which Hagarty said affects the number of crimes like theft and
break and enters.

"It requires them to turn to crime to support their habit, which
affects us all," he said.

Again, the statistics are already reflecting results.

Although the number of total drug charges fell from 208 in 2005 to 185
in 2006, so did the number of break and enters and theft under $5,000.

Break and enters fell from 278 in 2005 to 217 in 2006, a drop of 28
per cent. Although theft over $5,000 charges increased from 55 in 2005
to 70 in 2006, theft under $5,000 charges fell from 870 in 2005 to 779
in 2006, a drop of 12 per cent.

It will be interesting to see in the coming years if the total number
of drug crimes drops, Hagarty said, calling that a sure sign drug
traffickers are actually getting the message and are taking their
trade elsewhere.

"You would have to think that at some point that number will come
down," he said. "It will never be eliminated...but it shouldn't be as
successful as it has been in the past."

Having more officers has also allowed the service to spend
significantly more time on foot patrols in the downtown, which also
now includes the bike unit launched July 1. This move has allowed
officer to be more vigilant in enforcing liquor laws, Hagarty said.

Charges such as having alcohol readily available while driving,
drinking underage and drinking in public increased from 261 in 2005 to
451 in 2006, a difference of 73 per cent.

Fraud charges were also down to 241 in 2006 from 273 in
2005.

Charges on the rise in 2006 over 2005 included those involving young
offenders (from 299 to 464), assaults (from 592 to 694) and mischief
(from 448 to 543).

The total number of incidents investigated by the police service was
also up slightly, to 12,520 incidents in 2006 from 12,451 in 2005.

In 2004, the service probed 14,540 different cases.