Sudbury Police chief says resources 'stretched to max'

According to police chief Paul Pedersen, resources at Greater Sudbury Police are getting stretched thinner every day.

Pedersen made a presentation to the police services board Monday afternoon on the changing landscape of policing.

He told the board that over the past decade there's been an increase in the number of technology crimes to be investigated, as well as other calls involving drugs, mental health, and domestic disputes. There has even been an increase in the amount of traffic concerns across the city.

Yet the GSPS hasn't hired any new officers since 2011.

The extra demands placed on officers, Pedersen said, aretaking theirtoll on the service.

"Everybody, not just now but before me, comes to the job for the same reason," Pedersen said.

"They want to help the public, and they're frustrated when they can't. They're frustrated when they're stretched so thin that they can barely help themselves."

On average, Pedersen estimated police receive 150 calls a day.

"Recently some of our high profile events put some of the other crimes and concerns on a back-burner and it's not that they're not important," Pedersen said. "It's just we don't have enough resources to deal with everything simultaneously."

Pedersen was referring to three calls last week a barricaded person, one homicide and a violent assault that pushed resources to their limit.

"All of those major cases stretch our organization to its max," he said. "They are pulling us to where all we're able to do is those one investigations at a time before we move on to the other."

"I don't want anybody to take away from this presentation that we aren't understanding of the importance of everything from neighbour disputes to property crimes, but there's only so much we can do with the resources that we have," he said.

Pedersen said that alternative service deliveries, such as online reporting and the collision reporting centre,relieve some of the pressure.

"But sometimes we're just going to have to wait until we see a police officer."

Pedersen also said more funding was needed to address some of the stresses on the police service.

Policing is primarily funded by the municipal tax levy.

To listen to the interview click the audio link.