Peel police need new ideas, not just more officers, to effectively fight sophisticated crime

In fact, bringing on more officers in response to rising crime may, at least on paper, just exacerbate the problem, statistically pushing crime rates higher.

“You have to be really careful with crime statistics,” Blandford says, explaining that it’s like a snowball effect. “When you put more officers on the street you’re actually going to see an increase in reported crime because they’re out there working,” he says.

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It’s the age old response, whenever crime starts to rise, police organizations look to hire more officers to tackle the problem. However, it’s becoming cleat that this isn’t always the best solution, and as Peel grapples with rising violent crime, they must find the right solutions to try and address the issues.

For this story I interviewed a criminology expert from my alma mater, Laurier Brantford, who offered some great insights on the matter.

Published on April 3, 2019 in The Pointer - Brampton