A developing story from Thunder Bay: Authorities Chief Darcy Fleury says despite a slight surge in the city’s crime severity index (CSI), higher reporting figures paint a more accurate picture of what’s happening in the region than statistics alone.
“People are reporting crimes, which is what we want to see. This is probably a good news story all around because what we’re looking at is the number of calls that come to the service. That’s up,” he remarked.
At the same time, the municipality has seen an fall in really significant, dangerous cases. “Right now, I think the message to the local residents is we have a very good clearance rate, so some of the volume is coming down on some of the more strong cases, which is a good thing,” he confirmed. He declared that the 18.43 per cent CSI rise in incident rate is not a spike in dangerous offences. The CSI for Thunder Bay has only increased by 3.1 per cent, he noted, but the violent crime severity Index highlights a 7.44 per cent downturn compared with 2024.
Fleury indicated that what he’d like going forward is to be a more proactive rather than reactive authorities force.
He confirmed this downturn between 2024 and 2025 highlights the TBPS focus on drugs, gangs and guns. “That’s another area we still have our emphasis and will remain our number one enforcement priority,” Fleury stated. He stated the metric of the Stats Can CSI report is volume-based, which will expansion when more people report incidents, as well as when online-reportable incidents continue to rise as more residents use accessible reporting tools. Taken together, he remarked, these indicators show that while incident volume has risen, the severity of crime has not, and investigative outcomes continue to improve. “We have a very hard-working service. We’re seeing results and really getting momentum into the work that we’re doing here,” he shared. Fleury indicated that what he’d like going forward is to be a more proactive rather than reactive authorities force. “We do have some things in the works that hopefully in the next year or two we’ll be able to put out there that is going to help with some of these more proactive pieces,” he advised. One of their programs they’ve seen success with, he indicated, is Undertaking Support. This is substantial for getting people “in contact with the different agencies, making sure that everybody’s engaged and really trying to find the best way to help people live a different lifestyle.” Crime prevention, he shared, is huge, and mostly effective when you can implement it to the younger members of the region. This includes finding ways to help young people so they don’t get involved in any kind of criminal activity. The chief remarked it’s paramount to reach out to young people who, for example, may be living an unhealthy lifestyle to create an intervention piece to give them the best advice. “That’s where our social navigator (as part of Effort Support) is really critical, those kinds of roles where they can contact and say, look, what can we do to help you live a better lifestyle because this is the damage it’s causing to you and to your family and to the people in the local residents.” He declared school programs are also an critical part of the crime prevention and awareness piece. Unfortunately the reality in Thunder Bay can be troubling for some youths. “There’s a lot of money to be made in that pharmaceutical) trade here, and you know that goes maybe to some of the awareness pieces.” He declared the challenge for the TBPS and other regional agencies is to get the message out for people to avoid the temptation of the medicine trade. “You can make money, but you’re going to live a lifestyle that’s not healthy at one point or another. The stress, the anxiety for people that are engaged in that type of behaviour, it’s not healthy, and we don’t want to see people going on that path.” That’s one of the reasons, he remarked, we’re seeing people that are coming here from outside or people that are engaged in it. “It is profitable and it’s sad that’s the reason they’re coming, but that’s reality.” The citizens outside the officers force also have roles to play, he shared. “Agencies being funded appropriately and being able to do the things that they need to do in the area, the other social agencies, other health agencies, and not having the abilities to do what they need is so huge.”.
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📍 Source: Web Search · By: News Staff · 🗓️ August 05, 2026 · 🏠 ThunderBay.Online
