Public police complaints down a bit

The number of public complaints filed against York Regional Police has been dropping slightly over the last couple of years.

The Police Services Board recently received a report from Chief Armand La Barge summarizing public complaints.

In 2006, local police received 116 public complaints compared to 119 in 2005 and 124 in 2004. The actual strength of the service at the end of 2006 was 1,229 sworn officers. The ratio of conduct complaints for 2006 of .09 is one of the lowest ratios when compared to other large police services in Ontario.

Last year, York Regional Police responded to 224,992 demands for service and issued 117,824 provincial offences. La Barge told the board the service remains vigilant in communicating its values and code of professional ethics and this is reflected in the decreasing number of public complaints since 2004.