Ottawa Police 2016 Annual Report, now available

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, June 21, 2017      3:17pm

(Ottawa)—The Ottawa Police Service’s (OPS) 2016 Annual Report was released today as part of the June 26^th meeting of the Ottawa Police Services Board agenda.

“This report highlights the work the members of the OPS do every day to keep our community safe,” said Ottawa Police Chief Charles Bordeleau. “Policing continues to change as we adapt to many issues facing our society. Social disorder issues continue to change. Mental health increasingly plays a role in our calls for service. The landscape of policing oversight is changing. All of these issues have an impact on our members and make their difficult jobs even more complex. I am proud of the work they do.” 

Ottawa saw an increase in both gun-related incidents and online fraud complaints in 2016. Robberies were down last year, thanks to an efficient and proactive response by the OPS’s Robbery Unit.

“This report also provides a comprehensive look at the statistics and performance metrics related to crime in Ottawa,” said Chief Bordeleau.

The 2016 Annual Report offers residents information about Criminal Code of Canada (CCC) offences for the City of Ottawa and 23 City Wards. The information provides residents and visitors with a better understanding of crime trends and road safety in Ottawa.

Here are some highlights:

• With approximately 33,000 reported Criminal Code of Canada offences (excluding traffic) in the City of Ottawa, the level of reported crime increased by 6.8% last year. 
• The clearance rate for total Criminal Code offences (excluding traffic) remained constant in 2016 with 36% of all cases cleared by charge or cleared otherwise.
• Similar to trends seen right across the province, Ottawa’s Crime Severity Index (CSI) rose by 10.5% last year – the Violent Crime CSI increased by 13.0% to 55.5, while the Non Violent crime CSI increased by 9.4% to 45.9.
• In 2016 the rate of reported Violent Crime in Ottawa remained relatively constant, with a rate of 539.9 per 100,000 residents, however the overall severity of violent crime increased by 13% driven by murder, assaults, sexual violations, and abduction offences. The clearance rate for violent crime improved by 1.4 percentage points to 57.6%.
• Robberies were down 16%, as the OPS focused on clearing cases through enhanced enforcement measures.
• In 2016 the volume of reported Non-Violent crime in Ottawa increased 8.1%.  The clearance rate declined slightly by -0.2 percentage point to 31.9%.

The OPS also oversaw a number of initiatives like the Outreach Liaison Team (OLT) and the conclusion of the Traffic Stop Race Data Collection Project. Internally, we placed a focus on assessing and enhancing the care and wellness of our members, and continued our three-year hiring plan of adding another 75 officers to the service.

“It’s clear that 2016, presented several challenges. Gun-related offences increased substantially last year and we had to devote resources to suppress the violence,” said Chief Bordeleau. “But Ottawa is a safe city: Together we will continue to work hard to provide our citizens with the best police service possible.”

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