More statistics seem to be revealing the stronger police presence in downtown North Bay is paying off.
Daryl Longworth, North Bay's Police Chief revealed numbers showing a sharp decline in violent crime incidents in North Bay's downtown.
The statistics show violent crime hit a five-year high of 130 in 2020, but has seen that number consistently drop over the past five years down to 77 in 2024.
"I made it no secret since I got here, that the downtown is a high priority for us," Longworth told the media after the March Police Board meeting on Tuesday morning.
"We wanted to increase the visibility, so we made extra efforts to get increased foot patrols downtown, increased volume of traffic flow downtown by our marked police vehicles, and more engagement with the downtown community. We refocused our officers on mobile crime. mobile crisis, getting them back in uniform downtown for that visibility and interacting with the people downtown who sometimes traditionally have caused unrest or concern by both the business community and the people frequenting downtown. So that is a priority and will continue to be a priority as we move into the summer when it gets busier down there."
See related: Cops say downtown is safer due to foot patrols
Over the last few years, Longworth, along with former Chief Scott Tod, have put an emphasis on the downtown core.
In Longworth's first summer as Chief, he ramped up foot patrols in the area.
Longworth believes the statistics demonstrate that downtown North Bay is a safe place to go.
"I think the five-year tracking looking at the data downtown demonstrated to us that the perception that people have that downtown is unsafe is not supported by the data," said Longworth.
"The data is the violent crime, property crime has decreased significantly over the past five years in the downtown and that social disorder type problem has been up and down slightly but it has kind of remained consistent, so we hope to continue to focus our efforts downtown to make sure people understand that it is safe and really make them feel safe.
"I think the perception is when people see a police officer, they feel safe, that's the perception of their safety and we want to be able to continue to supply that."
Peter Chirico, North Bay's mayor and a member of the Police Board, was impressed by the Chief's report. He sees more officers walking around the downtown core.
“The effort that has been made to increase enforcement is working," said Chirico.
"When you see numbers coming down it shows it is paying off.
"When we look at violent crime down 20 per cent year over year. That's a direct correlation to the amount of exposure that our officers are having downtown, that are being downtown. I think that's been a big push by the chief, by all of our members here at police services to make sure that they're downtown and it's a safe place for people to go, for families to be, and those numbers reflect exactly what's happening out there."
