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Backyard Touch HOURS: Mon. - Fri. 10 am - 6 pm; Sat. 10 am - 5 pm, Sun. 11 am - 3 pm (FORMERLY BEACHCOMBER) GOURMET GRILLS FREE DELIVERY AND ASSEMBLY ON ALL GAS GRILLS! Offer ends April 21/08 COME MEET THE GRILL OF YOUR DREAMS CUSTOM OUTDOOR KITCHENS Presents 318 Guelph Street Georgetown 905.873.8835 Backyard Touch Independent & Free Press, Wednesday, April 9, 2008 3 Undercover radar a plainsclothes officer dressed, for example, as a construction worker, using radar. SpeedEYE system a photo radar-type system that captures licence plates of cars speeding. Letters of warn- ing are sent to the vehicles owner. Road Watch local citizens keeping an eye on the traf- fic and identifying vehicles particpating in unsafe driving. The message that this sends to people traveling through your community is that were out there and were very interested in making the road safer by nabbing speeders and other traffic offenders, said Pittman, not- ing the six officers specifically assigned to traffic. Were not going to solve all speeding, but if we get out there as often as we can, hopefully this will prevent some tragedy on the road, she said. The Chief cited unprecedented growth in the Region and right now, he said, the cop to pop ratio is 123 to every 1,000 people. The Ontario average is 188. In District 1 there are 154 police officers and civilians working to serve a population of more than 125,000, over 643 sq. km. (thats two thirds of the regions geo- graphic area). HRPS puts its officers on the front line. Ninety-two per cent of our staffing is what we call feet on the street, said Crowell. So the emphasis is on the front line. Unfortunately we are seeing an unprecedented num- ber of our people leaving our organization through retirement, Crowell said. Over the next five years close to 100 officers will be eligible for retirement. Thats a lot of experience walking out of the door. Crowell said just less than half of the police service has less than five years of experience, and that means more time and money spent training these officers and their supervisors. To compound the issue, Halton is facing a declining pool of wannabe police officers and increased competi- tion from other services such as the RCMP. Policing priorities also include joint projects to com- bat organized crime, guns and gangs, plus a greater demand for targeted programs to deal with domestic vio- lence, youth, seniors, child exploitation and fraud. Highlights for Halton Hills officers in 2007 include the arrest of four youth offenders charged with a number of graffiti incidents in Georgetown, the Macs Milk rob- bery in which a robber posed as a store employee, and tracking down a Teddy bear school yard pervert. Halton Regional Police Service (HRPS) Chief Gary Crowell and District 1 Commander Superintendent Signy Pittman came armed with statistics when making a presentation to the Halton Hills Town coun- cil recently. The highlights were: HRPS has 1.23 uniform police officers for every 1,000 people. Thats the lowest of any service in the GTA/Golden Horseshoe area. The next lowest is 1.34 in Waterloo, Durham and York. The Ontario average is 1.88 and the Canadian average is 1.92. The number of officers and civilians per 100,000 population in Halton was 170 in 2005 and 171 in 2006. Again thats the low- est of all large urban areas in Ontario. The median was 206 in 2005 and 211 in 2006. The focus is on the front line: 92.3 per cent of HRPS are front-line officers and sup- port staff (536); 5 per cent are Staff Sergeants and Detective Sergeants (29) and 2.7 per cent are senior management (17). District 1 (Georgetown, Acton and Milton) has 154 (police officers and civil- ians); 66% are uniform officers Retirement exodus: 51 officers are eligi- ble to retire now and 40 more are eligible to retire in the next five years. Calls for service (Halton wide): 88,041 in 2000; 97,451 in 2005 and 107,700 in 2007. In 2007 (projected): calls for service up 2.4% criminal offences down 6.6% violent crimes down 2.2% property crimes down 3.6 % Provincial Offences Act (ie. speeding) tickets up 15.6 % vehicle collisions up 10% vehicle collision deaths up by 9 to 20 impairing driving unchanged clearance rate up to 43% from 35.9% There were 822 property damage vehi- cle collisions in Halton Hills in 2007 the most during the winter months (98 in January, 109 in Feb, 97 in Nov. and 95 in Dec.). The lowest in July (42) and April (43). The rest averaged in the low 50s. There were 107 property damage vehi- cle collisions in January 2008. There were 165 personal injuries in vehicle collisions in 2007. The most occurred in Nov. and Dec. (23/20) and the lowest in May (8). In January 2008 there were 19 personal injury vehicle collisions. Crime rate comparison: Halton: 3,575; Hamilton: 6,298; Peel: 4,020; Ontario: 5,689 and Canada: 7,518. Policing cost per capita (06-07): Halton, $191 (06) $203 (07); Peel, $205 (06) $206 (07); Hamilton, $205 (06) $223 (07). Volunteers from the Acton Branch of the Canadian Cancer Society were treated to a lasagna dinner recently at Knox Presbyterian Church in Acton as they kicked off their annual fund- raising campaign. Among those volun- teers on hand were (from left) Margaret and Bob McKinnon, Jon Hurst and Bev Miller. With the kick-off now underway, local canvassers will be knocking on doors in Acton to can- vass funds for cancer research. (Right) Cancer Assistance Services of Halton Hills (CAShh) volunteer can- vassers Dave Harley and Sue Cizmar recently picked up their canvassing kits from the CAShh office as they prepare to kick-off their eighth annual residential campaign. Over the next weeks, canvassers will be knocking on doors in Georgetown, looking for donations to support their services. Photos by Ted Brown Police to adopt several measures to combat speeding Continued from pg. 1 Cancer campaigns kick off Police statistics indicate rise in calls, but a drop in serious offences CYNTHIA GAMBLE Staff Writer