The number of criminal offenses in Timmins increased last year, according to Stats Canada's crime severity index report released this week.
In 2018, the StatsCan crime severity index ranking for Timmins is 138.30, which is up from 94.69 in 2017.
The city's violent crime rating increased in 2018 to 204.83 from 142.78 in 2017. The non-violent crime severity index also jumped to 114.04 from 77.16 the year prior.
Nationally, the crime severity index increased two per cent in 2018 over 2017.
“We’re aware that this isn’t a flattering set of circumstances where there’s been an increase, but the national rate has gone up as well. So we’re caught up in an up-swing, it seems, of criminal activity and it’s nationwide. With that in mind, because we’re aware of it, we’re implementing new strategies to better serve the people of Timmins,” said Marc Depatie, Timmins Police communications co-ordinator.
“We use these types of metrics to better deploy our officers, to better suit and meet the needs of the people who live here.”
While there was a 46.06 per cent increase last year, there had been a slight dip in the crime severity index from 2016 to 2017, when the ranking went from 95.13 to 94.69.
Last year, there were four murders in the city.
“Murders in the way they measure the statistics, the metrics are heavier when there’s an element of violence, homicide included...and where weapons are used or physical assaults are used to have these crimes perpetrated. We had two murders, and one of them was the Gagnon family where three members of the family were killed and we’re not looking for a suspect, because we’ve been able to determine that the person responsible harmed themselves after having committed the offences,” he said.
The overall incident numbers have been increasing every year.
For 2018 the actual incident number was 4,521, up from 3,272 in 2017. In 2014, it was 2,876.
“We’re aware of the fact that we can attribute these things to a number of social ills that we’re working in collaboration with our community partners to effectively address as best we can,” he said.
Police are working with community partners.
Every week, he said there is a situation table meeting with police and organizations such as the health unit, Canadian Mental Health Association, and others.
"We’re proactively identifying persons who are at risk of offending. And we’re addressing them with either making arrangements for them to attend rehabilitation facilities either within the city or outside the area, whatever agency best suits that person’s needs. We’re freeing up the funds and the means to get that person directly in touch with the services they require," he explained.
Two new initiatives — a street outreach and community safety team, and a mental health outreach team — were also announced earlier this year.
The mental health outreach team is a partnership with Timmins and District Hospital and should be rolled out by September, said Depatie.
For it, officers will be teamed up with a social worker or a registered nurse from the mental health unit or who have a mental health background.
The street outreach and community safety officers are already on the street.
“There’s a team of officers that will be either plain-clothes or uniformed, depending on the nature of the work that’s being anticipated and they’re hitting the streets so that they’re able to locate those persons likely to be involved in criminal activity and address that proactively as well,” he said.
Overall, Depatie said crime should be everyone's concern, not just the police force's.
"We have an obligation as responsible citizens to make suspicious activity brought to the attention of the police,” he said.
Information, he said, is the lifeblood of any investigation.
"If things are going to get better we need for a free-flow of information to be coming to our attention. We have a fixed number of officers and they are on the streets, they are responding to calls for service, but in the absence of information that is timely, sometimes that can be the key factor in locating a crime or criminal before a crime is committed,” he said.
