Chatham-Kent police had another busy and challenging year in 2022 fighting crime.
Police have released their 2022 annual operational support report and it showed that the number of murders went up by one to four last year. However, the number of attempted murders decreased by 70 per cent from 10 to three.
The report also showed that aggravated assaults increased by 90 per cent from 2021 from five to nine and abductions doubled to 14. Police said 12 of the abductions involved forcible confinement, one involved human trafficking, and one was a parent contravening a custody order.
There were a few crime categories trending down across the municipality last year.
Sexual assaults dropped by 27 per cent from 101 to 74 incidents, according to Chatham-Kent police. Also, robberies declined by 33 per cent from 42 to 28, weapons incidents went down by 46 per cent from 69 to 37, and drug calls dropped by 32 per cent from 224 to 152.
The Intelligence Unit reported seizing $332,000 worth of illicit drugs during 35 search warrants and $224,000 of stolen property in 2022.
Police said the drug seizures were lower than previous years because of staffing shortages, a substantial reduction of illegal drug prices, and the takeover of illegal marijuana grow operation investigations by the Ontario Provincial Police, which in past years made up most of the drug seizures by Chatham-Kent police.
Police said 96 arrests were made and 270 charges were laid for drug offences and stolen property in 2022. By comparison, in 2021, there were 111 arrests and 454 charges. 2021 was also a record year for drug seizures with nearly $18.7 million confiscated.
Chatham-Kent police also noted they continue to keep a close eye on street level drug crimes and drug dealers.
Meanwhile, Chatham-Kent Crime Stoppers reported a decrease in drug seizures and property recovered from 2021 to 2022.
The Crime Stoppers statistics showed almost $103,000 worth of drugs sized last year compared to nearly $256,000 the previous year.
Officers only recovered $2,000 worth of property in 2022 compared to almost $73,000 the year before.
Arrests and charges are also down. Crime Stoppers said only 15 arrests were made last year compared to 55 the prior year and 41 charges were laid following tips from the public, significantly lower than the 145 charges in 2021.
Residential and commercial break-ins continue to trend downward because police said they're focusing on a small group of known criminals to keep them in check.
The annual police report also showed that Chatham-Kent had 10 more registered sex offenders last year compared to 2021. Currently, there are 299 local sex offenders registered in the provincial registry.
Police said five sex offenders were arrested and charged in 2022 for not complying with sex offender registry obligations, but added Chatham-Kent police is "consistently" in the "top-tier" for compliance percentage in Ontario.
Police said they now have the ability to track local sex offenders 24 hours a day if needed.
Police also said the number of child abuse cases increased slightly from 2021, but the number of arrests and charges dropped. The 2022 annual police report showed 12 arrests last years compared to 28 the previous year and 60 charges compared to 76 in 2021.
The Internet Child Exploitation Unit also made 12 arrests and laid 55 charges last year compared to 14 arrests and 48 charges the year before.
