Police chief addresses recent crime trends
With eight homicides already in 2018, Durham Region has nearly matched its full year total for such crime for all of 2017.
By Joel Wittnebel/The Oshawa Express
During the most recent meeting of the Police Services Board, Durham police chief Paul Martin took a minute to acknowledge the hard work of his team of homicide detectives, who have had an exceptionally busy start to 2018.
“They and their detectives within homicide…have done some outstanding work along with other members of service that we have drawn in, so my hat goes off to them, and we will continue to provide the service the community expects,” he said.
The comments came in response to the fact that with just six months gone out of 2018, the Durham Region has just about matched the number of homicides for all of 2017.
Last year, the region saw nine homicides, while there have been eight already in 2018.
“I would suggest to you that it’s always a strain,” Martin says, noting that he’s had to be flexible with his resources. “You can budget for an average number of major incidents including homicides….what we have created is a flexible program where we can draw from other resources.”
Tragically, Martin says the numbers may be slightly inflated by the fact the region had one multiple homicide incident, that being the killing of three members of an Ajax family in March.
“It does inflate the numbers, (and) it does inflate the work quite frankly,” he says.
Moving forward, Martin says it’s hard to say whether this will put strain on the police budget, set at approximately $200 million this year. However, he says it really comes down to monitoring as to whether this will be an ongoing trend or just a blip in the numbers. He acknowledges that it could eventually require more resources if the trend continues to rise.
“At some point yes, we have to look at supply and demand,” he says.