Sarnia police are planning to combat so-called 'minor crime issues' through a new initiative.
During Tuesday morning's Golden K Kiwanis Club meeting, Police Chief Derek Davis teased the new program, which is set to launch in September.
Davis told attendees that the service sees value in dealing with minor crimes, depending on their capacity.
"We are very much looking at retail theft, doing better with that, and doing better with some of the property crimes that people are experiencing," said Davis. "There's a lot of people being victimized in that category and that's an area that we need to address."
Davis' comments were prompted by a question about increasing rates of grab-and-dash crimes in the United States. Davis said he believes those types of crimes are becoming more common in Canada as well.
"So you can expect a new initiative from us," he said. "We're still working on it, I don't want to ruin the surprise, but we do have a new partnership coming online in September, which will be public, to address exactly those 'minor crime' issues."
Davis said when police ignore minor crime, the service deprives itself of an opportunity to have a positive interaction.
"The people that are stealing your garden gnome, often are people who can use referrals and resources and some of these other components," said Davis. "The person who's shoplifting is often shoplifting because of underlying risk issues -- addictions, whatever they are."
Davis added that the public should expect an announcement within the next 60 days.
"[This] is something we're looking at that's new and innovative for Sarnia that's never been tried to my knowledge, but we're going to take a shot at it," he said.
