DRUGS FUEL RISE IN THEFTS

Crime Up 12.2%, Break-Ins Up 42.8% As City's Cocaine Problem Continues
To Grow

Nearly 800 more crimes were committed in Peterborough last year than
the year before, city police revealed yesterday.

The 2006 crime stats, officially released at the Peterborough-Lakefield
Police Services Board meeting yesterday, showed a 12.2 per cent
increase over last year.

In total 6,805 crimes were reported to police in 2006, up from the
6,064 in 2005.

Crime was also up in the fourth quarter of 2006 compared to the same
period in 2005, with 1,654 crimes reported in the last three months of
the year.

Deputy Chief Ken Jackman said the main offences pushing up the crime
rate were robberies, break-ins and drug offences - and all three are
connected.

"When you look at it, some of that increase is attributed to robberies
and certainly the break and enters," Jackman said. "Those increases
have a direct correlation to the drug situation, people trying to get
money to fuel their drug addiction."

Break-ins skyrocketed in 2006 to 574, up 42.8 per cent from 2005,
police said.

Most of those break-ins happened in homes, many even happening while
people were at home, police said.

Drug offences increased 37.1 per cent last year compared to 2005,
police said.

Part of the increase in drug offences was due to the Operation
Crackdown undercover operation last fall, Jackman said.

During Operation Crackdown, an undercover officer infiltrated networks
of street level crack cocaine dealers leading to 129 charges laid
against 45 people.

There were 196 drug offence incidents last year, police said. Of
those, 70 involved cocaine, a 112.1 per cent increase from 2005.

Marijuana was involved in 102 incidents, police said, a 6.3 per cent
rise.

There were 66 robberies in 2006, five more than in 2005, police
said.

The fourth quarter of 2006 featured a 59 per cent increase in
robberies compared to the same period in 2005; 27 robberies, or almost
half of all last year's robberies, occurred in October, November or
December.

Of those year-end robberies, 12 happened in businesses, 11 on the
street and four in homes, police said.

Weapons were involved in 14 of those robberies - eight involved a
knife and three involved a gun, police said.

Reported assaults and sex offences both decreased in 2006, police
said, with 632 assaults and 80 sex offences.

Domestic disturbances were up 10 per cent from 2005, with police
responding to 1,214 domestic disputes last year.

There were 164 domestic assaults in 2006, police said.

Overall calls for service were up 3.4 per cent from 2005, with 28,177
calls made to the force last year.