2024 mid-term progress report
Strategic Priority: Enhance Town Safety
Indicators:
Interim Report: where we are and where we are headed
Crime severity index
- 82.74 (2023)
Why this matters?
The Crime Severity Index (CSI) tracks the number and type of criminal incidents coming to the attention of police. CSI considers the change in volume of crime and the relative seriousness of that crime in comparison to other crimes.
What does this mean?
The rate is a count of all criminal incidents reported to and by the police divided by the population. Population data is based only on permanent or resident-based population and does not take into account seasonal population changes.
The CSI was reported to be 82.74 by Statistics Canada in 2023. This represents an overall increase of 14.93 which can be attributed to the change in non-violent crime. Non-violent crime includes all non-violent Criminal Code violations, including traffic, drugs and all Federal Statutes.
Violent Crime severity has decreased by 10.54.
Authorized strength (OPP)
- 91 members (2023)
Why this matters?
The OPP Southern Georgian Bay Detachment has an authorized strength of 91 members that directly support our communities.
What does this mean?
Proper detachment staffing allows us to meet the expectations of our communities and to provide policing services built on respect, compassion and fairness. We understand that building strong police-community partnerships is an ongoing process that requires adaptability and responsiveness to the evolving needs of our communities.
Calls for service
- 12,937 calls for service in 2023
Why this matters?
OPP members respond to a high number of calls for service in our community and do so with pride, professionalism, and honour. In addition to these calls, OPP members maintain proactive traffic enforcement with a focus on highway safety and community engagement.
What does this mean?
Members of the Southern Georgian Bay OPP detachment responded to 12,937 calls for service in 2023. This is an increase of 246 calls as compared to 2022 (12,691).
Interim Report
Where we are and where we are headed
Creating safe communities is a collaborative effort of Midland, our neighbouring communities, the County, our service partners such as the OPP, and our residents and business owners.
The Town introduced a number of environmental design measures to aid in crime prevention from our Official Plan and updated our planning policies to include these measures. We introduced new technologies at the Harbour, and the downtown in partnership with the BIA, to improve security. The Town’s by-law enforcement team also piloted foot patrols in the downtown core.
Our Fire Prevention Division has responded to over 120 calls for inspection and our response crews to 796 emergency calls so far to date. The Fire Prevention Division has attended 25 events for public education, 6 Fire Extinguisher Training Sessions and 5 events, 2 of which were coordinated with neighboring agencies. The division also held a Camp Ignite program which was a weeklong program with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada.
We are working to make our streets safer by investigating automated speed enforcement options and monitoring traffic data and patterns to inform our design and construction activities.
The Town advocated for increased funding and services with multiple levels of government. Based on Town and community feedback, the County of Simcoe introduced a number of new service offerings, such as funding to increase funding to shelters, development of a community resource document (Community Response Toolkit), and a non-traditional security service provision (One Community Solutions) that specializes in managing crises through de-escalation, focusing on serving the unhoused community. Two successful Hope, Housing and Health Symposiums were held in Midland in 2023 and 2024, bringing together service providers and the public to talk about the needs specific to our community.
Members of the Southern Georgian Bay (SGB) Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) will continue to work on the implementation of the OPP’s 2023-2025 Strategic Plan. They will remain focused on delivering our three strategic priorities to our people, our work, and our communities.
Working with our community partners to respond to calls for service that involve socio-economic complexities remains a key priority of the detachment. Strengthened police and community relationships, with shared goals of crime prevention, harm reduction and risk intervention strategies, coupled with a focus on collision reduction, visibility, traffic education and enforcement are a foundational component of our daily operations.
SGB OPP detachment will remain focused on adapting to the current and future realities of policing by developing evidence-based and actionable solutions to prevent, respond to, and solve crime. It is about sustaining our emphasis on effective operational outcomes to achieve the OPP vision “Safe Communities…A Secure Ontario”.