After recently completing their busiest year on record, local police saw their busiest single month in January.
South Simcoe Police Service Deputy Chief Sheryl Sutton presented the service’s monthly operational update as part of the police services board meeting at the South Division station in Bradford on Feb. 12. That showed the service saw 3,543 calls for service in the first month of 2025, setting an “all-time record.”
“It was a very busy month for our officers in January,” Sutton said. “I’m hoping that is not indicative of how 2025 is going to go, but all we can do is wait and see.”
She explained that in the last five years none of the other months even came close, and Chief John Van Dyke added the service had never before exceeded 2,900 calls for service in one month. Since the beginning of 2020, September 2024 was closest at 2,893.
Outside of the COVID-19 pandemic years of 2021 and 2022, January has typically seen about 2,500 calls for service since 2020.
The deputy chief confirmed that the definition of calls for service had not changed recently, something board member and Innisfil Mayor Lynn Dollin wanted to double check since “that’s a huge spike.”
Calls increased in almost all areas, but some notable changes compared to January 2024 included:
- Intimate partner violence increased to 156 from 125
- Break and enters increased to 14 from two
- Theft over $5,000 increased to six from one
- Sexual assaults increased to four from one
On the plus side, both frauds and impaired calls were down slightly.
Another driving factor of increased calls for service were the 219 motor-vehicle collisions in January 2025 compared to just 147 in January 2024.
While the division of those collisions is usually “fairly close,” Sutton noted that “significantly more” were in Innisfil with 138 compared to 81 in Bradford in the first month of 2025.
She explained that could partially be the result of Innisfil Beach Road being shut down for more than a week, after the bridge for the 400 was damaged, but also pointed to the snow storm on Jan. 29 which resulted in 26 collisions within about 12 hours, and even led to part of Yonge Street (County Road 4) being temporarily closed south of Highway 89 as officers tried to handle a number of collisions due to whiteout conditions.
None of the officers were involved in any collisions and none of the collisions reported in January were fatal.
Another reason the service saw so many calls in January was an increase in the number of proactive calls for service, where officers respond to situations before residents make a request.
Unlike most months, when a majority of calls are reactive, the first month of the year saw an almost even split with 1,858 reactive and 1,685 proactive.
The chief explained one example of those proactive efforts came from the service’s traffic unit, who worked with the platoons to run a blitz throughout January in which they caught and charged 41 drivers for having no vehicle insurance, 20 of which were also charged for operating a vehicle with a suspended licence.
Van Dyke said he was proud of the unit for what board chair Chris Gariepy called a “very successful campaign.”
However, if the rest of 2025 maintains the pace seen in January, Sutton explained the service may need to shift focus away from proactive efforts in order to prioritize other calls and ensure no one is being turned away.
“We will never compromise public safety,” she said.
Meanwhile, the service is working toward hiring the 12 new staff approved as part of its 2025 budget, including nine new officers along with three civilian employees.