Pubdate: Thu, 06 Jul 2017
Source: North Bay Nugget (CN ON)
Copyright: 2017 North Bay Nugget
Contact: http://www.nugget.ca/letters
Website: http://www.nugget.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2226
Author: Jennifer Hamilton-McCharles
Page: A1

DRUG VIOLENCE ON RISE

Activity driving up overtime costs, says police chief

North Bay is seeing an increased amount of violence among people
involved in the drug trade, forcing front-line officers into overtime,
says Police Chief Shawn Devine.

"We see a trend of a lot more violence between people within the drug
culture that wasn't there before, whether it's because of the nature
of drugs being used or whether the dollars involved are more
substantial."

Devine said violence related to the drug trade has escalated from
physical harm to the use of weapons. The number of stabbings, for
example, has increased over the past six months.

Devine provided a quarterly report on the service's $19-million budget
to the North Bay Police Services Board Tuesday.

Of concern is that $269,000 of $400,000 budged for overtime for sworn
officers has already been spent.

About $56,000 of the $100,000 budgeted for civilian overtime also has
been spent.

"It has been a busy summer for our front-line officers and criminal
investigation officers who are busy following up some of the serious
cases we've had," Devine said.

"During the first 48 hours in serious investigations, like attempted
murder and sexual assaults, it's paramount for officers to gather as
much information as possible. (After that time we) reschedule people
or reassign people where it doesn't amount to overtime."

Devine said the service continues to put resources toward solving
missing person cases.

"We've had a lot of publicity on missing person cases - cold cases. In
terms of the costs associated with that, it's not overtime. But
there's HR (human resources) costs and they continue to go on," he
said.

"Some of those cases are 10 years old and we still continue to put
resources in hopes of solving them."

Devine also told the board that the $60,000 budgeted for legal fees
has been overspent by $17,710.

"We also have two disciplinary actions both involving police service
hearings that have and will continue to have an impact on the budget."
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MAP posted-by: Matt