What is the Service?

Under the Ontario Police Services Act, municipalities are responsible for the provision of adequate and effective Police Services to ensure the safety and security of citizens, businesses and visitors. To fulfill this mandate, each municipality and police agency creates and implements strategies, policies and business models that meet the specific needs and priorities of their local communities.

Specific objectives include:

• Crime prevention
• Law enforcement
• Victims’ assistance
• Maintenance of public order
• Emergency response services

Influencing Factors:

• Demographic Trends: Socio-economic composition of a municipality’s population.
• Non-Residents: Degree of daily inflow and outflow of commuters, tourists, seasonal residents and attendees at cultural, entertainment or sporting events who require police services are not captured in population based measures.
• Officer/Civilian Mix: Differing policies regarding the type of policing work that may be done by civilian staff in one municipality vs. uniform staff in another.
• Public Support: Willingness of the public to report crimes and to provide information that assists police services in the solving of crimes.
• Reporting: Available police resources, departmental priorities, policies and procedures, and enforcement practices may all influence the number of reported criminal incidents (unreported crime is not included in crime rates).
• Specialized Services: Additional policing may be required at airports, casinos, etc.

Additional Information:

The Crime Rates included in this report may differ from those in Statistics Canada’s publications due to the use of more current population estimates provided by the OMBI municipalities.