Editor’s note: This is Greater Sudbury Police Chief Paul Pedersen’s response to a letter to the editor by Levack citizen Chantelle Gorham, entitled “The curious case of the invisible police service,” published on Sudbury.com Aug. 24.
The Greater Sudbury Police Service acknowledges the letter to the editor written by Chantelle Gorham. While we always welcome and appreciate feedback from the community on our service-delivery, there are some remarks that are factually incorrect and require a response.
Public safety challenges have dramatically changed over the past few years, specifically when it comes to the complexity of investigations and the wide-range of calls for service that require a police response.
The vast and diverse types of calls for service has dictated a dramatic shift in the deployment of resources.
On any given day, officers respond to a variety of calls including but not limited to Intimate Partner Violence, Sexual Assault, Identity Theft, Financial Crimes, Ambulance Assist, Missing Person, Vulnerable Person needs, Mental Health calls and Impaired Driving, just to name a few.
There is no question that addictions, homelessness and mental illness have created a vulnerable population that law enforcement and the criminal justice system are ill equipped to deal with, however, we are often the only agency available to initially respond to these calls.
The last three years have placed unprecedented demands on not only policing but also on the social services sector, including shelters, crisis centres, food banks, mental health and additional services and hospitals.There is no question that the global pandemic has had significant impact on workload pressures, staff availability and access to services.
Many of the staffing issues directly affect service-delivery and continue to impact private and public organizations across the province and across the country.
Statistics Canada recently released its Crime Severity Index Report for Census Metropolitan Areas across Canada. While Canada’s total crime rate decreased by 0.3 per cent, Greater Sudbury’s crime rate decreased by 4.3 per cent.
This is a direct result of the efforts of GSPS working with our community in tackling crime and keeping our community safe through crime prevention, intervention and holding offenders accountable.
While non-violent crimes including property crimes and fraud decreased, violent crimes increased 13.05 per cent. This is mainly attributed to a drastic increase in the number of sexual assaults (27 per cent) reported to police and an increase in the number of homicides and attempted murders. These are complex and challenging investigations that require a survivor-focused approach.
Serious violent crimes, mental health calls involving weapons and violence and sudden death investigations as a result of the opioid crisis stretch our resources to their limits and present the greatest harms to our community.
As our members continue to deal with increasing pressures and stressors of investigating serious violent offences and opioid-related deaths, we have seen an increase in mental health injuries that contribute to our staffing crisis.
Similar to many organizations, GSPS has been challenged with staffing levels at times. On average, 6.6 per cent to 10.3 per cent or 18 to 28 sworn members (officers) are unable to be deployed operationally.
Officers are unable to be deployed for a variety of reasons, including sick days, parental leave, WSIB and mandatory training.
Our members are our most valuable resource and while many of our officers who are unable to be deployed operationally do valuable work away from the front line, our front line work can only be done by deployable resources. We are committed to our members’ health and wellness and that includes rehabilitation and reintegration into the workplace. A shortage of officers has a significant impact on the backlog of calls for service, response times and overall service-delivery, however, while our response times have increased, this has not impacted public safety.
Last year our officers conducted 3,828 proactive initiatives called focused patrols that include foot patrols, bike patrols, searching for wanted persons and traffic enforcement in complaint areas.
Our data-driven approach to community safety and well-being allows us to focus our resources on the areas, persons and situations that pose the greatest harms to our community.
Proactive initiatives are primarily driven by data that includes examining areas with the highest call volumes.
From 2019 to present, the Downtown, Flour Mill, Donovan, Minnow Lake area, and New Sudbury have the highest call volume, and based on that data, officers conduct the most proactive initiatives in these areas.
From Jan. 1 to Aug. 24, 2022, there have been 141 focused patrols in the Dowling, Levack and Onaping area, 396 focused patrols in the Flour Mill and Donovan area and 1,423 in the Downtown.
These proactive initiatives are above and beyond the Emergency and Non-Emergency calls that come in through our 9-1-1 Emergency Communication Centre and online reports submitted through CopLogic. While the reactive calls for service see officers deployed to over 200 calls for service each day, our people are dedicated to proactive work while also balancing emergency response and the administrative responsibilities required for court proceedings that have also become more complex over time.
With respect to our rural storefronts and volunteer programs, these were removed from our budget in order to fall within the City of Greater Sudbury Council budget guidelines, which required our board to make difficult decisions.
Given that neither storefronts nor volunteer programs are mandated by the Police Act Adequacy Standards the tough decision was made to suspend both and only contain essential services in the budget. These decisions were made during the uncertainty of the global pandemic where organizations were being ordered to only keep essential services operational. As we approach a new budget cycle, we will do our best to balance public needs with fiscal responsibility. Service-delivery is directly impacted by staffing levels and staffing levels are also directly impacted by budget.
Our members are people. Dedicated and caring people who protect and serve this community with pride and professionalism. People who are dealing with mental and physical injuries at an unprecedented rate as are most police services across the country.
As the Chief of Police, I am proud of the work of all of our members and the significant role that they play in the overall safety, security and wellness of Greater Sudbury. We are always a phone call away, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
One of the few agencies that have a 24/7 mandate and much like a hospital emergency department, we have to triage incidents based on severity with the most serious incidents receiving an immediate response while also balancing so many other competing interests.
To suggest that this police service is invisible discredits the hard work that our members are putting in day in and day out giving their all every shift.
It also takes a very myopic view of the demands on a modern police service that is dealing with a staffing crisis while trying its best to maintain service-delivery with a focus on the greatest needs of the community under financial constraints.
I know I speak for every member of GSPS when I say we truly love serving this community and we are committed to the Our Shared Commitment to Community Safety and Well-being model where we work collaboratively with our community partners, local organizations and community members to ensure that Greater Sudbury is a safe place to live, work and play.
Paul Pedersen is the chief of police with the Greater Sudbury Police Service
