Overall crime in St. Thomas on the decline, violent crime on the rise in 2023

(CTV News file image)

Police in St Thomas are crediting the implementation of a Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT) after seeing a decrease in the overall crime severity index (CSI) for 2023.

The CIRT is made up of 12 police officers that are trained to safely contain situations involving armed or potentially dangerous suspects and to operate as a vital support unit within the STPS utilizing specialized equipment, rigorous training, and a collaborative team approach to resolve high-risk matters peacefully.

The latest information released by Statistics Canada shows an overall decrease of crime by 13.57 per cent. There was also a significant decrease of 20.09 per cent, specifically in the non-violent crime severity index.

However, in 2023, violent crimes saw an increase of 7.66 per cent.

"The implementation of CIRT continued investments in both Street Crime and Property Crime Units, enhanced investigative focus on Human Trafficking and Intimate Partner Violence, continued investment in frontline resourcing, and the expansion of crime analysis capabilities, a second K9 unit, and innovative deployment strategies for all uniformed assets – will be our main operational focus moving forward aiming to decrease violent crime in our city,” said Chief Marc Roskamp.