Police are responding to an increase in both the frequency and severity of crime in Bradford and Innisfil.
South Simcoe Police Service Deputy Chief Sheryl Sutton presented the operational update for November during the police services board meeting at the Innisfil Town Hall on Dec. 19, showing 2,440 calls for service in November, about a 20-per-cent increase over the 2,028 in the same month last year.
“We’re certainly on trend to be over 30,000 calls for service, which would be a record for our community,” she said.
Sutton attributed that increase to the continued growth in the communities.
“We’re getting more serious crimes up here,” she said.
Most calls to police saw slight increases throughout the year so far, but one area in particular stood out — intimate partner violence (IPV) had been reported to police 590 times by the end of November this year, compared to 457 times in the same period last year.
“This is huge,” Bradford Mayor James Leduc said upon seeing the statistic.
Chief John Van Dyke confirmed it’s a “big increase” which requires “a lot of work” to investigate, and from what he’s heard it reflects the increased number of stressors people are facing as families may be struggling financially or dealing with mental-health issues.
Innisfil Mayor Lynn Dollin agreed, but also felt efforts to raise awareness of the issue mean victims are more likely to come forward.
Municipalities have been recognizing the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and last year declared violence against women and intimate partner violence an epidemic in Ontario.
While the full statistics from December won’t be available until next month, Leduc asked how reports of IPV have been trending so far, and Sutton confirmed she expects there will be another increase as it’s common for this time of year.
“December is a very stressful time for families and people are going through a lot,” she said.
A smaller spike in reports of IPV was also seen in September, as reported to the board by Insp. Julio Fernandes in October. While it’s best to report IPV as soon as it happens, Fernandes understands victims may not always feel safe doing so, and advised that they can also report anonymously via Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
Also concerning to board members was the increase in reports of sexual assault which increased to nine this November compared to four in the same month last year, and Sutton felt Dollin’s explanation applied here as well.
“I do believe that is certainly a contributing factor for sexual assaults, that victims are coming forward and they are reporting these to police,” she said.
Anyone looking for help dealing with the impacts of IPV can also contact Victim Services Simcoe County by phone at 705-725-7025, ext. 2120, Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., or 1-866-923-3938 after hours, or by email at [email protected].
Fatal Collisions
November also saw another fatal motor vehicle collision, bringing the total for the year so far to eight, the same as 2018, which had the greatest number of fatal crashes since 2015.
While the total so far may be the same, the town where most occur has switched from Bradford in 2018 to Innisfil in 2024.
Sutton also attributed that to growth with more people driving longer distances and the roads in Innisfil being more open as settled areas are more spread out than in Bradford.
“There’s so much more traffic on our roads as there’s so many more people commuting,” she said. “We don’t have any extra roads, but we have more traffic.”
While mostly an issue of volume and speed exacerbated by drug and alcohol use, Sutton also acknowledged Innisfil has some particularly bad intersections.
That point was emphasized by Dollin, who noted that of the six fatal collisions in Innisfil so far this year, four were on County Road 4 (Yonge Street). She said traffic engineers from Innisfil had met with those from the County of Simcoe to review the data and determined two of the road’s intersections warranted better traffic control.
Those included at Line 9, where the county has plans for a roundabout and at Line 6 which is set to be included in the future project to widen CR 4 to four lanes from two between Highway 89 and Lockhart Road.
In the meantime, Christian Meile, the county’s director of transportation and engineering, said they’re considering temporary signals at Line 6 and in July had a guard rail installed nearby.
“It’s not lost on me that the county put in a new guard rail at 6th Line, and within a week of it being installed it was bashed in,” Dollin said. “It’s a really bad intersection.”
As usual, the calls to police in November were split about 50/50 between both towns, but were particularly noticeable in Alcona as Patrol Zone B — the area east of Sideroad 10 between Line 5 and Line 9 — has been the busiest single zone each month this year, with the exception of February and March when it was second and third, respectively.
Sutton also noted use of the service’s online reporting tool continues “creeping upwards” with 50 reports in November.
