By Cecilia Nasmith
When council directed the Cobourg Police Service to provide “information on the level of crime and disruption in the immediate area of Transition House,” the request was too vague to act on, Cobourg Police Services Board chair Dean Pepper told council Monday.
Pepper was accompanied by Chief Paul VandeGraaf to ask council to revise the request to be more specific.
The original request followed a November presentation to council by the Good Neighbour Coalition, who described an increase in crime and disruption in their community since Transition House reopened in October 2018 (after a closure) with a new mandate. It went from a service that transitioned homeless into community residency to a less-restrictive shelter operation.
VandeGraaf said that they are happy to provide information, but reminded council that policing recognizes a big difference between preventing a crime and reacting to one.
Not every police call summons officers to an actual crime, he continued.
Over the past weekend, he said, they had 97 calls for service of which only 21 involved actual crimes - “22% of our time,” he estimated. One of the non-crime calls involved a troubled individual causing a disruption who eventually had to be escorted to the hospital, tying up two police officers for almost four hours.
At the end of their third quarter, VandeGraaf reported 122 calls for service coming from the area of Transition House, but only 13 involved actual crimes - “11% of all calls,” he figured, listing several assaults, thefts and threats as well as a drug offence and one report of human trafficking.
This compares with another address far from the Chapel Street neighbourhood where they have been called 57 times in the same time period.
Yet appropriate responses to non-crime situations are vital because they have the potential to prevent future crime.
“There are many, many things that can change in a community that could cause an increase in police response,” he acknowledged, adding that they still hope for more specific direction in order to respond by the Feb. 18 date requested by council.
