THUNDER BAY — Spanning hundreds of square kilometres through nine detachments, the Ontario Provincial Police have their work cut out for them in the Northwest.
Bryan MacKillop is the OPP's chief superintendent and regional commander for the Northwest. He spoke with TBnewswatch about the types of incidents that changed from 2022 to 2023, as well as the OPP's goals for 2024.
While there were increases in property crimes and crimes of violence, MacKillop noted there were decreases elsewhere.
"Luckily, we saw a decrease in personal injury, collisions and property damage collisions, but we did see an increase in fatal collisions.
"A positive part of that, though, is the proactive efforts of my officers across the entire region. With all nine detachments we've seen dramatic increases in proactive activity."
Officers across the region are still seeing a number of impaired drivers, MacKillop said, but increased enforcement may be part of the reason.
"We led the entire province in RIDE programs throughout the festive season and that caused a significant increase in impaired driving charges.
"Compared to 2022, where we saw 1,124 impaired driving charges across the region, we saw 1,176 across the Northwest region for 2023," he said.
MacKillop called the increases a "startling and alarming statistic" and was appalled that "people are still out there engaged in that type of problematic driving behaviour."
Looking at year-over-year numbers, the amount of traffic stops increased by 7.5 per cent, with an increase of less than five per cent when it comes to police laying impaired charges.
The number of arrests the OPP made in 2023 increased by 14.3 per cent from 2022 to 2023. As well, occurrences of violent crime increased by almost 10 per cent.
MacKillop said each detachment saw increases in varying incident categories compared to the previous year, including with intimate partner violence. While the incidents are alarming on their own, MacKillop stressed that the increases in reported incidents shows people trust the OPP.
"We've adopted some very proactive approaches and put a lot of energy into making sure we support our victims and those who are survivors of intimate partner violence or domestic.
"So by putting more resources into that, by having our Mobile Crisis Rapid Response Teams out there working with victims and really leaning on our victim support networks, we're hoping that those who are vulnerable, those who are suffering from domestic violence occurrences, feel more comfortable coming forward to discuss what they're going through and allowing us an opportunity to help them."
The OPP collaborates with many different agencies, including the Canadian Border Services Agency and police from Minnesota, as well as policing directly and indirectly on northern First Nations.
MacKillop is uniquely aware of drug and other organized crime travelling through the region. He said help from each community aids in their policing efforts.
"I think one of the strengths we have is very strong detachment commanders and very strong membership who want to get engaged with the community and learn about the heartbeat of every single community. It's different everywhere, and we have to be responsive to local needs."
Every two years, the OPP conducts a satisfaction survey and generally receives high approval ratings from respondents.
In July 2023, the provincial police launched a text survey for specific incidents so the agency could get more immediate and relevant feedback from community members.
"The general survey that goes out might go to someone who's never interacted with us at all. It might go to people in the City of Thunder Bay who don't have very much to do with the OPP," MacKillop said.
"Whereas the one that goes up through our communications centre, it's immediate, and it really does hit the target. It's for the people that we're dealing with on a day-to-day basis."
In an effort to better communicate and understand First Nation's needs when it comes to policing in the region, the OPP has developed an Indigenous Advisory Circle that's set to launch later this year.
Partnering with Crime Stoppers, this dedicated pilot project will allow members in certain remote First Nations to contact Crime Stoppers in their language, aligned with their culture, to report issues of crime or disorder within those remote communities.
The OPP is also not immune to staffing issues and has recently hosted a slew of in-person and online recruiting events in an effort to onboard more civilian staff and front-line officers.
"The most important thing for me is getting a diverse group of professional officers serving all of our communities," MacKillop said.
He said it's up to the OPP to use every method possible to reach and engage good, solid candidates "so the person I'm putting in a cruiser that's responding to calls, that's out there trying to help your loved ones, or that's working at two o'clock in the morning in Manitouwadge, is the right person who's there at the right time to help people in the way I expect them to.
"I don't want my officers to ever just respond to a call. I want them to go resolve the call for service."
This is a method of policing that MacKillop is striving for across the Northwest in an effort to resolve issues in communities rather than reacting to them.
"We want officers to respond with the intent of helping you resolve what the problem is because I think that's what people are really thirsty for."
MacKillop also wants those under his command to be supportive of victims in an offender-centric system.
"We have to make sure we prevent re-victimization, and we have to make sure we make the referrals to the proper agencies that can support them as fast as possible."
MacKillop also wants to take this year for the agency to focus on offender compliance.
"We want to make sure we hold offenders accountable and make sure they abide by their conditions and don't repeat offend."
MacKillop said this year the Northwest detachments will be working hard to keep building connections in each of the communities the OPP serves.
"We're making deliberate attempts to work hand in hand with our citizen leaders across the entire region to make sure we have a better understanding or at least that extra layer of understanding of what the concerns of their constituents are.
"I'm more than happy to work with all of my municipal leaders and really look forward to continued engagement and to improving relationships with them as we move forward."
