Though a relatively safe place to live, there was a significant rise last year in the number of domestic disturbances and break and enters in Mapleton.
OPP Inspector Scott Smith told council last week police responded to 20 domestic calls last year, up from the three-year average of 13.
Of the domestic calls in 2010, over half (11) took place in old Peel township, while six occurred in Drayton and just three in former Maryborough Township.
Over the last four years, the number of domestic disturbances in Mapleton has risen 300%, from just five in 2007 to 20 last year.
But despite the increase, those incidents represent just 6% of the total domestic calls across Wellington County, which is good considering Mapleton’s population is about 11% of the county total (according to the 2006 census).
In fact, all OPP call types in Mapleton last year were well under 11% of the county total, except for break and enters, of which there were 45 or 14% of the total.
Most of the break and enters last year occurred in the rural areas of Peel (22) and Maryborough (20), while just three took place in Drayton.
Smith estimated 90 to 95% of those crimes occur at residences, as opposed to businesses. And most, he told council, target farm sheds or barns, which are seldom locked and contain attractive items like chainsaws, ATVs or other small machinery.
All other reported crimes in Mapleton remained relatively unchanged in 2010, except for impaired driving incidents, which were down to just four. The three-year average in the township for those calls is 10.
Overall, police responded to a total of 1,285 calls in Mapleton last year, representing about 6% of the county total – the lowest of any municipality in the county. Over the last three years, the total call volume for Mapleton has increased by less than 3%.
Yet residents can always do more to remain vigilant and help prevent crime, Smith said, including locking doors at home and in their cars, developing a road watch program like the one established in Puslinch and even programs to educate the public on topics such as domestic violence.
Smith explained there are no definitive “causes” of crime, but risk factors include poverty, mental health problems, unemployment, poor education and bad parenting.
He added he continues to lobby for more community involvement by the police.
“We need to have that engagement,” he said, noting he wants to get officers out of their cars more and into schools or drop-in centres.
Youths may make mistakes and can occasionally forget their surroundings, but for the most part they are good kids, Smith said.
“We have to get past this mentality that kids are intimidating or bad,” he stressed.
While statistics show 16- to 25-year-olds have the highest rate of crime, Smith refutes the traditional explanation from some experts who attribute the trend to the late development of the part of the brain that processes the consequences of their actions.
He points out only 2% of the youths in Wellington County are committing crime and the other 98% are fine – so that can not be the case.
A more probable explanation for some youth crimes, he said, is often there are no longer any consequences at home for their actions.
