A busy year for the Ontario Provincial Police in the Rainy Rainy River District.
Officers handled nearly 13-thousand calls for service in 2021.
That’s a nine per cent decrease from 2019. Public health measures and legislated shutdowns due to the pandemic impacted the statistics in 2020.
Detachment Commander, Inspector Shaun Crabbe, says there has been an upswing in drug enforcement, mental health calls and assaults.
“Increases in assaults with weapons, aggravated assaults and as well as sexual assaults. During that same time period, we saw a significant decline at the district level in residential and commercial break and enters, thefts and shoplifting,” says Inspector Crabbe.
There were over 1,500 reports of violent or property crime, with over 2,700 charges laid for various offences in 2021.
There were also over 540 motor vehicle accidents. That’s also down from previous years.
Inspector Crabbe says incidents of drug overdoses were also down.
“In fact, 34% year to year decline in overdose deaths and overdose incidents, emergencies responded to by the OPP.”
However, the number of times OPP officers had to use naloxone to save a person from overdose increased 120 per cent.
Inspector Crabbe notes the type of crime is evolving.”
“Firearms, edged weapons, brass knuckles, individuals with needles loaded with narcotics, tazer like devices are very common, almost daily that the officers are encountering these types of weapons and persons armed with them.”
