2008-2010 York Regional Police business plan voices top five concerns
By Jon Yaneff

York Regional Police presented its proposed policing priorities in its 2008-2010 business plan recently.

It came after months of police-community consultations, which included an extensive community survey.

Chief Armand La Barge, along with Deputy Chiefs Bruce Herridge and Eric Jolliffe, presented the business plan, which touched on subjects the police are facing, including the region's high population growth, increased ethnic and cultural diversity, more youth in the high-risk age group, as well as increased public demands for higher police visibility and community-based policing.

During the external survey, the top five concerns raised by the public dealt with violent crimes, guns and gangs, traffic safety, property crime (the first time it has been in the top five concerns) and drug control and enforcement.

"When you look at the connection between those types of crimes there is a strong correlation to that," La Barge explained. "You have to find people who are using drugs or are looking for money for drugs or are committing property and violent type crimes or are woven up in gang activity, and we've seen an increase of individuals that are driving while under the influence of narcotics."

"So during the next three years, we're not only going to address those top concerns but we're going to continue to put our emphasis on crime prevention, assisting victims of crime, and though traffic safety has moved to number 3 from number 1, there's still an awful lot of work that needs to be done in this community," he added. "We still have individuals driving while under the influence of alcohol, despite all of our education awareness programs in schools."

Community satisfaction levels went up in 2007 from the 2004 levels. The survey said 95.6 per cent of citizens questioned were proud of their police service, which was an increase of 18.6 per cent from 2004. Also the satisfaction of police patrolling neighbourhoods had a 27.5 per cent increase from 2004, hitting 68.5 per cent. There was an overall satisfaction of about 91 per cent, which was a 12 per cent increase from 2004.

The York police's goals for 2008 to 2010 include a community focus to engage citizens in crime prevention programs, increased police visibility in neighbourhoods, ensuring programs meet the needs of the region's youth, enhancing support to victims of crime and promoting traffic safety.

La Barge also said York has one of the most diverse communities anywhere in Canada or the world, and police have established some fantastic working partnerships with communities all across the region.

"We want to continue to build on these relationships and find ways to not only get into the community, but have the community assist us in keeping this region safe," he said.

Some more goals for the Regional police would be to continue to provide operational excellence by evaluating current business practices, enhancing criminal investigation capabilities, enhancing large-scale emergency response capabilities, as well as using more up-todate technology to enhance their performance.

"We have to find ways to avert our officers of some paper work and administrative tasks because I think when people pay taxes, they don't want police officers sitting on computers doing data entry," said La Barge. "What they want are the officers out on the street doing important work and keeping the community safe by arresting individuals who are committing violent offences and uncovering individuals who are in possession of drugs, hand guns and other illegal items. So we've identified areas technology will relieve officers of some of those tasks."

Police have also promised in their business plan that they will continue to be a preferred place of employment by recruiting and retaining staff representatives from the region's diverse communities, while providing development opportunities to members to enhance their capabilities as well as providing effective leadership development and promoting a healthy and positive work environment.

They will also continue to be a superior quality service by maintaining high community satisfaction, delivering inclusive and equitable delivery of police services and improving communication and awareness of York Regional Police to the community.