Sergeant DiClemente

We've been getting a lot of questions about whether crime is increasing significantly in Peterborough—break and enters and such. It seems it is, or optics are such that it is. So we asked Peterborough Police Sergeant Walter DiClemente about it, and here's some interesting stats he provided to us:

• Our second quarter crime stats show that our actual offences are down 8.1 % from the same time last year, and the clearance rate (that is, the percentage of the crimes that are solved) is up at 54.6% compared to 47.9% from the same time last year.

• Break and enters are down 26.5% and robberies are down 23.5% from the same time last year.

• We do have an increase in total weapon offences, up from 7 at the same time last year to 20, a 185.7% increase.

• Drug offences are up from 73 at the same time last year to 94, a 28.8% increase.

Some telling quotes from DiClemente on crime in the area:
-- "Recently we have been experiencing an increase in break and enters to compounds that store or use copper wire. This trend is not unique to this area, it is province wide."

-- "Since our college and university students have moved back to the area, we have had an increase in residential break and enters. Thieves are targeting laptop computers and electronic gaming units. This trend can be attributed to several students residing in the core area of the city and thieves taking advantage of unlocked and insecure doors and windows."

-- "The drug offensives are mainly officer initiated and can be attributed to the work conducted by our dedicated drug unit, who are targeting known drug dealers. We our also finding that these same drug dealers are arming themselves with weapons that are located during arrests."

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