With break-ins on the rise in Wellington County, local OPP inspector Scott Lawson is urging citizens to do their part to prevent crimes of opportunity.
Councillor Lynda White, the county’s police services board representative, raised concerns about the issue at the April 27 Wellington County council meeting.
Citing statistics from the April report from Lawson, Wellington County OPP’s detachment commander, White told council, “The break and enters and thefts are up in the county. It’s really keeping our officers busy and there’s just a lot of crime going on here in Wellington County.”
County-wide there have been 42 break-ins this year, compared to 36 to the same point in 2016. Twenty-three of the 2017 crimes occurred in north Wellington, while six occurred in Centre Wellington and 13 in the southern end of the county.
Lawson said the OPP has been working through the media to get the message out that police need help from citizens in preventing and solving this type of crime.
“We need the community to be aware that this is happening and for them to help us help them,” stated the inspector.
Lawson said much of the rise in break-ins and thefts flows from illegal drug use.
“We all know that a lot of what is happening … is to feed the other unfortunate addictions that are in our community and that is illicit drugs,” he said.
"We need to remind the public that they have to take precautions in this new world we live in.”
Wellington OPP have bolstered their street crime unit (SCU) in response to the trend, said Lawson.
The unit has been working with partner agencies to share information in an attempt to identify those responsible for break ins.
“The unit continues to work closely with the Wellington County OPP media relations officers to send out releases to the public, educating them on locking their motor vehicles to prevent these types of crimes from occurring,” the report points out.
“A great majority of thefts from motor vehicles are related to citizens in the community of Wellington County not securing their vehicles. These types of thefts lead to crimes of identity theft and financial fraud.”
Lawson encouraged the public to help police and “lock their houses, lock their outbuildings, take the keys out of their cars … take steps to lessen the ease with which criminals can come and take advantage of citizens in our community.”
