Mayor Cam Guthrie says he hears a lot about suspects who are arrested and rearrested, sometimes on the same day, and is asking the Guelph Police Service to look into the problem.
Guthrie is a sitting member of the Guelph Police Services Board and brought up the issue during Thursday's meeting of the board.
He told the board that members of the public have brought the issue to his attention and he has noticed it himself when reading media reports about crime in Guelph.
“It is extremely common to see at the end of the description of people who have been arrested that they are arrested for whatever the crime is, and then it says ‘also breach of probation.’ Sometimes it’s multiple, five times breach of probation," said Guthrie.
He also said it is becoming more common to read reports of an arrest and it mentioning that person had re-offended after being released from custody that same day.
Last week, Guelph police reported a woman had been arrested 30 minutes after being released on bail and a man who was arrested during a takedown downtown late last month is facing a number of charges, including breach of probation.
Through a board motion, Guthrie has asked the department to report back to see if it is truly an issue and what can be done about it.
“If we can understand what the repeat offence is, if it’s related to drugs or addiction issues, then there’s both an enforcement issue here to maybe look to investigate further, but there is also a completely non-enforcement issue here as well — that’s social service issues, counselling, other funding and investments that can be made in other areas so these types of potential crimes don’t occur in the first place,” he said.
Once the board has the data, said Guthrie, it can look at next steps, which may include leveraging the provincial and federal governments for assistance.
The resolution asks the Guelph police staff to present a report in two months time that identifies prolific repeat offenders and the categories in which those issues are being committed. The report will identify instances of the issue, not the identities of the individuals involved.
Guthrie said he also wants to understand how COVID is affecting the issue and the dispensation of justice in the community in general.
“There are victims of crime in our community. It’s important that they see justice be served and I want to make sure any of the impacts — especially around COVID — aren’t pushing these things to the side with especially prolific repeat offenders,” said Guthrie.
The report will look back on the last 30 months to report on the issue as it relates to 15 months since the pandemic began and the same period of time prior to that.
