Guelph police have been involved in an increasing number of vehicle chases in recent years, though the vast majority last year were called off out of concern for public safety.
A report presented to the Guelph Police Services Board on Thursday shows there were 38 “apprehension pursuits” involving police vehicles in 2023, which is up from 36 in 2022.
“Automated licence plate readers became service-wide issued last year and because of that we saw an increase in the number of vehicle pursuits,” Sgt. Dustan Howe told the board.
“Our training emphasizes the prevention of pursuits through alternative measures … but if a pursuit does happen, there’s ongoing decision-making by the officers involved in the pursuit.”
Of the 38 vehicle pursuits, the report indicates 35 were called off in the interest of public safety, two ended with arrests made and one resulted in a fatal collision. The latter was investigated by the Special Investigations Unit and ended with police being cleared of criminal wrongdoing.
As explained in the report, before an officer initiates a vehicle pursuit, they need to determine whether there’s an immediate need to take the suspect into custody of it the need to identify the suspect outweighs the risk to public safety.
That risk level is to be “continually” reassessed during the pursuit.
Seventeen of the pursuits happened in the first half of 2023, with 21 in the later six months.
Reasons cited for drivers failing to stop for police include six stolen vehicle calls, eight due to previous criminal activity and 18 attempts to avoid a provincial offence. Reasons for the other six vehicle chases are unknown.
For comparison, there were 33 apprehension pursuits reported by police in 2021, 27 in 2020 and 30 in 2019.
