Duane Hicks
The local OPP detachment continues to have a far above-average clearance rates for solving crimes.
During the year-end police activities report for 2014 from OPP detachment commander Insp. Steve Shouldice during last night’s council meeting, he noted the clearance rate for violent crime in Fort Frances is 94.1 percent—up from 92.6 percent last year.
By comparison, the average clearance rate for violent crime in Canada is 72 percent while it’s 73 percent in Ontario.
Likewise, the clearance rate for property crime here is 32.9 percent—higher than the federal average of 23 percent and provincial average of 24 percent.
“We’re well above the provincial and national averages here,” said Insp. Shouldice.
The Fort Frances OPP handled 4,151 calls in 2014, which is about an average year, he noted.
Of these, 182 incidents were violent crimes, which included 110 assaults, one robbery, and 12 sexual assaults.
There were no murders.
There also were 281 property crimes, including 48 break and enters, one theft over $5,000, 68 thefts under $5,000, and 85 counts of mischief.
There were 173 motor-vehicle collisions that caused damage, and six which caused injury but no fatalities.
Some 26 involved impaired drivers.
Meanwhile, the number of drug-related incidents were down here. There were 16 counts of possession of cannabis compared to 24 last year.
There were eight counts of possession of other drugs and controlled substances, compared to 17 last year.
And there were three counts of trafficking, compared to nine in 2013.
District-wide, there were 7,756 calls for service in 2014, including 519 motor-vehicle collisions.
Fort Frances accounted for about 53 percent of the total district workload.
The OPP provided 28,495.25 hours of service in Fort Frances in 2014, with 1,532.38 hours of overtime.
The three-year average for overtime is 1,711.86 so police did well controlling overtime costs last year, Insp. Shouldice noted.
Meanwhile, the town likely will get a rebate on last year’s policing costs.
It paid out $2,878,232 in policing costs in 2014, but received a mid-year rebate of $41,986.
Insp. Shouldice said he expects the town will get a similar reconciliation for the last six months of the year.
Looking ahead, the estimated cost for policing under the revised billing model is $2,624,274—a savings in excess of $200,000.
