POLICE SERVICE RELEASES 2006 ANNUAL REPORT

City of Kawartha Lakes Police Service has released its Annual Report
for 2006, a year police Chief John Hagarty called one that saw many
improvements for the municipal force.

That includes not only reducing crime overall, but providing a more
effective targeted response to illegal narcotics - an effort he said
is continuing to reduce property crime-related charges in Lindsay and
the former Ops Township.

"If you can take that element off the street then your numbers are
going to go down," he said.

The service will continue the beefed-up enforcement and proactive
measures which Hagarty said have been paying dividends right through
the first half of 2007.

"That's certainly the direction we are going to continue to go," he
said, adding that he expects to see drug charges - which rose 15 from
157 in 2005 to 172 in 2006 - begin to decline.

The decision to prioritize drug enforcement began after the chiefs
initial 90-day review of the service in late 2005, just weeks before
the municipal force assigned a plain clothes officer to the Kawartha
Combined Forces Drug Unit.

Although he is happy to see the 2006 reduced numbers in property
crime, which dropped 11 per cent from 1,408 in 2005 to 1,252 in 2006,
Hagarty admitted it doesn't take much to influence those stats.

"All it takes is one (crime) spree," he said.

Last year saw drops in the number of break and enters (245 to 188),
thefts over $5,000 (10 to 9), thefts under $5,000 (710 to 622), and
property fraud (245 to 215.)

Some property crimes did rise, however. They included thefts of motor
vehicles (67 to 76) and possession of stolen property charges (131 to 142).

Violent crimes were also on the rise in 2006, a trend Hagarty said
police services across the country are currently experiencing. Charges
here increased by 61 - or 10 per cent - from 640 to 701.

"It's a very small amount in general," the chief said.

In 2006, there was one attempted murder charge laid, the same number
as the year before. Assaults rose 62 from 597 in 2005 to 659 in 2006,
a jump of 10 per cent.

Sexual assaults decreased from 23 in 2005 to 16 in 2006, a decline of
30 per cent. But Hagarty said they are far more common as police
believe one out of 10 are actually reported.

"All you can do is deal with the ones that are reported," he said.

The statistics released in the 2006 Annual Report meet specific
Statistics Canada criteria, unlike the numbers that were already made
public in January to the Police Services Board, Hagarty said.

Those numbers, published exclusively by The Lindsay Post, showed a
24-per cent increase in crime - thanks mostly to a skyrocketing number
of traffic tickets handed out as a result of more enforcement.

Other 2006 highlights outlined in the report included the launch of
spot checks that Hagarty said saw officers working with the local
probation and parole office to check to make sure those on probation
were adhering to their release conditions.

"They know that we are monitoring," he said.

The year also saw the deployment of a bike unit, increased foot
patrols and the addition of two additional officers whose salary is
partially subsidized by the province.

Kawartha-Haliburton Crime Stoppers, coordinated by community services
officer Const. Tammy Brydon, also received 288 tips, the most ever for
the program in one year.

The 2006 Annual Report was mailed out this week and will soon be
available for viewing on the services website at www.kawarthalakespolice.com,
Hagarty said.