Newmarket council hopes the new police data portal can help address citizen concerns on speeding and road safety.
York Regional Police presented its community safety portal, which was launched in November to offer citizens a detailed breakdown of crime trends in their neighbourhood, to councillor on Feb. 7. The portal also offers road safety data on accidents and driving-related charges.
Deputy Mayor Tom Vegh said the map does not reflect the number of complaints concerning traffic and that is a point of concern with residents.
“Sometimes there’s a difference between perception and actuality,” Vegh said. “There are a lot of complaints, but the complaints don’t always jive with the actual traffic charges being laid."
For Newmarket in the past year, the statistics indicate a 29 per cent increase in careless driving charges (138 from 107) and 27.5 per cent increase in collisions (977 from 766). However, dangerous driving is down 47.6 per cent (22 from 42).
Insp. Jim Killby said police will patrol and address areas for which there have been many complaints. Deputy Chief Paulo Da Silva said police also intend to add a new dashboard for citizens to track complaints in the system and see whether or not they are validated.
“That way, if another community member wants to check the validity and check the area, they can also see the complaint was put in, and hopefully that alleviates some of those concerns,” he said.
The safety portal was introduced as a way to get citizens more involved in community safety and increase transparency.
“With the goal of fostering community safety and well-being as a shared responsibility,” Da Silva said.
Police and councillors emphasized the relative safety of the region and Newmarket compared to other larger jurisdictions. The dashboard shows declines in several categories, including assault charges (457 from 514) and breaking and entering (89 from 98). Attempted murders were at two, from zero, last year in Newmarket, while firearm weapons violations were steady at nine.
But Vegh said day-to-day, week-to-week crime, also offered on the dashboard, is low, and residents can rest easy.
“We aren’t immune to crime. There are crimes that happen sometimes,” Vegh said. “But I do encourage residents to look at the map and explore it, and I think what you’ll find is you’ll be quite assured of the very low level of crime we have here.”
York Regional Police offers public training sessions to use the map, with three running Feb. 8, Feb. 16 and March 3.
Mayor John Taylor suggested another screen to indicate the number of tickets issued in a given area to show police activity. DeSilva responded that they could look into doing that.
He further said the force's investments in data tracking and management is a significant part of its success.
“Hopefully, our community recognizes we are a very safe community, a very safe region,” he said.
You can use the data portal or sign up for training sessions through the York Regional Police website.
