Cobourg Police and bylaw stepping up enforcement to restore order downtown

Cobourg Police Chief Chris Leather. Photo by Dan Jones, CFWN, LJI

By: Dan Jones, Northumberland 89.7 FM, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter.

Cobourg Police and municipal bylaw services are partnering to address social disorder and low-level crime and nuisance complaints in the downtown and in parks, in an attempt to restore order within Cobourg and public spaces.

Police Chief Chris Leather unveiled his multi-pronged strategy Tuesday stating a coordinated effort with law enforcement, social service providers and justice officials to help solve these problems.

The police service, Leather explained, conducted and operational review, which found that five prolific offenders accounted for 919 calls for service in 2025, or five percent of all calls.

Officers spent 815 hours of direct policing interacting with these individuals. Yet of all this work, only 52 charges were laid.

Leather’s first phase will be about enforcement. “It’s about restoring order. Its about balancing support with accountability, and its about addressing repeat harm more effectively,” he said.

An Aug. 13 incident was cited as an example, when targeted enforcement was deployed in the downtown core in response to concerns related to open-air drug use, possession and trafficking. Nine adults were arrested, with Schedule 1 substances seized. Among the multiple charges laid were failing to comply with probation and prohibited activity on the premises.

Leather said police are trying to understand patterns of behaviour of individuals to determine the response, adding not all interactions rise to criminal activity.

Police are walking a fine line of enforcement of municipal ordinances or criminal code violations or whether the individual needs to be directed to social services to address mental health and addictions issues.

“Police are not the solution,” he said, emphasizing that the enforcement actions taken are focused on behaviour, not status in the community. A majority of the calls for service are for unwanted people.

Cobourg's Director of Legislative Services Brent Larmer presented stats of bylaw calls for this year, suggesting public intoxication, nuisance, noise, and other low-level offenses are centralized to Victoria Park, the downtown and the Ecology Garden. Larmer explained that bylaw and Cobourg police are in lockstep in enforcement activities.

Most of these arrests results in the person charged released on bail. However, officials suggest that repeated documented charges may lead to denied bail for prolific offenders.

In the coming months Leather is looking to establish communications and consultation with other community stakeholders, to forge ahead with other phases of his strategy.

With files from Cecilia Nasmith.