Robberies, sex assaults on the rise in Peel

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The number of robberies and sexual assaults in Peel is on the rise, the latest police statistics show.
Peel Regional Police Chief Michael Metcalf said the 2007 annual statistical report, released last Friday at a Police Services Board meeting, shows there were 6,250 incidents of violent crime last year, which includes robberies, murders and assaults. In 2006, there were 6,224 such incidents.
Robberies overall were up to 1,103 in 2007 compared to 981 in 2006 (11 per cent). And this year's figures suggest the trend is worsening.
Metcalf told The News earlier this year that in the first two months of 2008, Peel police investigated 215 robberies. During the same time last year, there were 141 robberies. This represents a 35 per cent increase.
"It's disappointing," Metcalf said. "(Committing robberies) just seems to be an easy thing to do. It's easy money and easy things to obtain from people."
Overall in 2007, gunpoint robberies were up almost 11 per cent from 2006, he said (237 last year compared to 210 the previous year).
The number of firearms seized by police was down last year to 916 compared to 1,128 the year before.
"There's no doubt about it, there's a lot of firearms out there, and we get calls for service about shots fired," Metcalf said. "Whether they're just firing the guns into the air, who knows? But that does cause concern for citizens, especially if you're in that neighbourhood."
Metcalf said Central Robbery Bureau officers are seeing more cases where an individual or group of people band together to commit a series of robberies, as opposed to "one-offs."
"Certainly that's something we've noticed...they're terrorizing more victims, and that makes the numbers go up," he said. "You may not get much (cash) out of one convenience store robbery, but when you commit three or four, it adds up."
The Central Robbery Bureau, which investigates bank heists and robberies with weapons, has investigated 140 incidents this year.
Statistics also show there were 85 more sexual assaults reported in 2007 (475) compared to 2006 (390), about a 20 per cent increase.
"I'm hoping that's due in large part to more people reporting (that they've been sexually assaulted)," Metcalf said. "The victims sometimes don't want to come public with it because it's a source of embarrassment for them and they fear they are going to be victimized a second time (when they have to testify) in court."
But, Metcalf said, better resources are now available, including Victim Services of Peel, which helps sex assault victims through the judicial process.
Other numbers show:
• a 7.6 per cent increase in motor vehicle collisions (from 27,478 in 2006 to 30,090 last year)
• a 12.2 increase in hit-and-run crashes (1,223 in 2006, 1,396 last year)
• a 3.6 per cent drop in school occurrences, which includes violent crimes on school property and other crimes
Metcalf added that Peel police made arrests in all 16 homicides last year.
lrosella@mississauga.net

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