CRIME IN YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD

Chief Rodd on the Big Picture

Each area and neighbourhood in Peterborough has its unique
characteristics and features. That's true not only of architecture and
atmosphere but also crime. Police have divided Peterborough and
Lakefield into five districts and each is monitored in a different
way.

Examiner Police Reporter Sarah Deeth talks to area residents,
councillors and the police about the crime in the districts. This
weekly, six-part series focuses on what crime looks like in your
neighbourhood and what the police are doing about it.

One of the biggest challenges of the police service is balancing the
policing needs of the community with the growing problem of organized
crime and narcotics in the city, police chief Murray Rodd said. Rodd
is an advocate for community-based policing, and the high visibility
of uniform officers.

Uniform officers in each community and neighbourhood should also be
the front-line officers for drugs, traffic concerns and crime
prevention, Rodd said.

"Nothing replaces a one-on-one interaction with an officer on foot,"
he said.

But the drug war is perhaps one of the biggest and most costly
challenges the police service faces, Rodd said.

"Drugs are the single biggest threat to the community, in every single
respect," Rodd said. "And the social costs of the drug culture are
huge."

The influence of drugs can be found in everything from organized
crime, gang activity to petty crime, he said.

Some crimes, such as thefts from vehicles and break and Examiner
enters, are committed Police Writer by people who are trying to
support drug addictions, he said.

Investigating drug crime is crucial, he said, but it's also very
labour-intensive and costly.

"It's a war we have to fight, on the supply side and on the demand
side," Rodd said.

There's no end to the amount of intelligence work related to drug
crime, he said, because almost every person police arrest has
information related to drug crimes that officers can pursue.

Costs associated with drug investigations are also increasing, Rodd
said, especially when police have to send out the Emergency Response
Team to help execute high-risk search and arrest warrants, Rodd said.

"But it's very necessary," Rodd said.

The police service is trying to increase its criminal investigation
unit, invest in intelligence gathering and target criminals through
enforcement and asset forfeiture, he said.

Though narcotics may be the police service's top priority, more
residents questioned by The Examiner listed traffic, instead of drugs,
as one of their top concerns.

"Traffic is the most important thing to most citizens because it
affects the most citizens," Rodd said.

Most people, he said, won't be affected by a violent crime or a break
and enter.

But absolutely everyone is affected by traffic and most people know
someone who's been involved in a traffic accident, he said.

Each area leader works with the traffic unit to address traffic
complaints in their area, he said.

Rodd pointed to the number of times police have made drug and weapons
seizure while doing something as simple as a RIDE detail.

"The more traffic work you do, the more everything comes together,"
Rodd said.

That downtown bars can stay open until 2 a. m. is also a concern for
police, Rodd said.

It's his experience, he said, that the bars don't make more money
staying open for an extra hour.

People are increasingly staying home and having a few drinks before
going out, he said.

But because bars are open until 2 a. m. people aren't arriving
downtown until much later in the evening, he said.

Nothing has changed in terms of what people are spending at the bars,
he said.

"The aftermath is just delayed by an hour," Rodd said. "Now patrons
are either better rested or more intoxicated."

That means that arrests are being made towards the end of an officer's
shift, and the ensuing paperwork will push that same officer into
overtime pay, he said.

It's a problem that ripples out and affects the whole city, he said.