The number of weapons calls handled by Chatham-Kent police in 2020 was the highest ever recorded, according to an annual report by the Critical Incident Response Team.
The police services board was told during its monthly meeting on Tuesday morning that emergency response officers were called to 107 weapons calls last year, which is by far higher than the old record of 72 in 2019. They were called out a total of 183 times last year for various incidents, which is also the busiest year ever for the team.
Police said the team was paged 22 times in 2020 to execute high risk search warrants, conduct ground searches for missing people, bomb threats, and barricaded people. The search warrants resulted in several people being arrested and weapons and drugs seized.
The team also assisted police in Toronto and Windsor and helped keep the peace during the Black Lives Matter and Anti-Mask protests in Chatham-Kent.
Chatham-Kent police also reported an increase in attempted suicides and mental health issues last year.
Constable Ed Rota said the COVID-19 pandemic is likely responsible for the 23 per cent jump in those incidents. He said the mobile crisis team responded to 506 attempted suicides and 961 mental health incidents that were reported to police in 2020.
The team, which includes psychiatric crisis nurse Christine Cogghe, works Monday to Friday and can conduct psychiatric assessments at the scene to free up patrol officers. Officers with the team are also usually called when patients are discharged from the psychiatric unit at the Chatham hospital to offer a more discreet and empathetic way to arrest a wanted suspect.
Rota said team members have in the past spent an average of 3-5 hours in the emergency departments waiting for an assessment on someone arrested under the Mental Health Act. In 2020, officers apprehended 40 people under the Act and saved frontline officers 140 hours of waiting by taking over.
Other police data showed that calls involving youth crime decreased last year by almost five per cent compared to 2019. Police said they responded to 1,556 incidents involving youth in 2020, including missing youth, family disputes, criminal activity, and mental health matters.
The statistics also showed 121 charges laid against 64 youths during 155 criminal incidents. That's a 43 per cent drop in criminal incidents, a 23 per cent decrease in the number of youth charged, and a 19 per cent reduction in charges. The top incidents involving young people were breaching probation, assault, mischief, sexual assault, threats, harassment, and dangerous weapons.
Chatham-Kent police said a report outlining overall crimes such as murders, attempted murders, assaults, robberies, thefts, and break and enters will come forward at another meeting.
