Police stats around same levels as last year in third quarter

January 16, 2014 · 0 Comments

By Bill Rea
Things have been somewhat quieter for Caledon OPP in 2013, although the statistics are up in a number of categories.
That was one of the conclusions spelled out recently as acting detachment commander Inspector Dominic Beckett gave Town councillors the quarterly report for July, August and September.
The presentation was brief. Beckett said there were nine men charged with stunt driving in Caledon (meaning going faster than 50 km-h over the posted speed limit), and one of those men was a Caledon resident. There were eight stunt drivers in August. Three of those were women and two of the drivers live in Caledon. September saw seven men charged, including one Caledon resident.
Beckett said the number of occurrences were down, both for the quarter and the year to date.
He did note there was an increase in sexual assaults over the year, from seven to 15, as of the end of September. While he stressed he didn’t like to play down any such occurrence, he told Mayor Marolyn Morrison a lot of these instances were relatively minor, such as invitation to sexual touching. He also said some were historic incidents, meaning they happened some years ago, but were reported recently.
Beckett reported noticeable increases in the number of complaints to the Roadwatch program. They jumped from 48 to 62 for the quarter and 388 to 503 fior the year to date. There has also been more activity in cracking down on dangerous commercial vehicles.
The Ministry of Transportation (MTO) also conducts enforcement of commercial vehicles. Beckett couldn’t tell Councillor Richard Paterak anything about the figures involved in MTO enforcement. “They’re not my stats to give,” he said, although he said he would inquire.