OPP HAVE RECORD YEAR IN ARRESTS, DRUG BUSTS

Local News - Officers in the South Porcupine cluster of the Ontario
Provincial Police met nearly every goal their detachment commander set out
for 2002.

"It was a good year for us," said Mike Jordan detachment commander of the
South Porcupine cluster. "Most of our incident numbers were consistent with
last year (2001)."

Jordan said in 2002, officers laid 6,650 charges under the Highway Traffic
Act compared with 5,035 charges laid in 2001.

"We had more officers on the road at peak times which led to more
visibility at peak times and an increase in charges," Jordan said.

In 2002, there were eight fatalities in motor vehicle collisions in the
cluster, which includes Iroquois Falls, Gogama, Foleyet, Matheson and 29
townships in the Timmins area.

Jordan said the investigating officers believe three fatalities were caused
by drivers falling asleep at the wheel, two were caused by poor driving
conditions, two were cause by driver errors and one fatality was the result
of a freak accident.

Jordan said he had hoped the number of fatalities would be consistent with
or lower than 2001's seven fatal collisions.

"We're hoping through enforcement and increased visibility, we can prevent
motor vehicle collisions," Jordan said. "But it's harder to prevent
fatalities."

Jordan said overall, the number of motor vehicle collisions in 2002 was
favourable. Officers responded to 410 collisions which bested the target of
437 Jordan had set.

"We were doing well for our MVCs all year," Jordan said. "But in November
and December, we had some strange weather which caused black ice and
freezing rain which led to many more collisions."

The OPP reported 148 break and enters in 2002 when 193 were targeted,
officers performed 271 snowmobile patrol hours when 200 were targeted and
performed 536.5 foot patrol hours when a target of 300 was set.

Jordan was proud of the efforts of local residents doing their part to
solve crimes.

"Crime Stoppers had an excellent year," Jordan said.

"We received 7,112 calls," Jordan said. "These led to 1,138 arrests, helped
clear 1,362 cases and recover 1.6 million in property and more than $3
million in drugs."

Jordan has identified safer roadways and trails, aggressive drivers, more
roadway patrols, foot patrols, education in the community, decreasing
victimization and quarterly patrols targeting commercial vehicles as goals
for 2003.