Calls declining, weekends busiest for Hamilton police: report
Most common calls to police: domestic violence, car crashes, requests for ambulance
Hamilton Police Chief Glenn de Caire said his officers are doing good work, but he's worried they won't be able to keep up with their workloads, particularly in the lower city, despite a decline in calls for service.
Hamilton’s Police Services Board examined a 189-page report on police workloads at its meeting at city hall on Monday evening. The report, based on data from 2011-2013, features numerous statistics including calls for service, time spent per call and police dispatch and response times.
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Police Chief Glenn de Caire said he’s "very concerned" with the report's findings that officers are working at full capacity, as it may hurt response times or the ability to do proactive policing in the future.
There’s a very clear message in this report that our officers are doing fabulous work out there with the resources they’re given.- Glenn de Caire, Hamilton Police Chief
"It’s an issue of demand, but also one of community expectations," de Caire told the board.
De Caire didn’t say if the police would be asking for more officers in the upcoming budget, but did say he would like to have more officers in the Central Mountain area. The chief also said the force is examining the possibility of a new police station in the Dundas and Flamborough region in the future.
“There’s a very clear message in this report that our officers are doing fabulous work out there with the resources they’re given,” de Caire said.
Police board Chair Lloyd Ferguson said the workload numbers appear to be “holding static” since he’d last seen them and stressed he didn’t anticipate a request for more police officers when the force presents its draft budget next month.
"I don’t want the headlines tomorrow to be we need 60 more officers," Ferguson said, adding more people on the campaign trail had talked to him about taxes than crime.
Ferguson said the police force is running efficiently now and the fact that calls for service are down means the city doesn't need more police officers on the street.
Still, board member Madeleine Levy hinted there could be an opportunity to add new officers as she asked about plans for policing in Division Three as the population there grows. Following the meeting, Levy said she would wait and see what the police force puts forward before making any decision.
Study confirms weekends are busiest for police
The study features a mix of common-sense facts — police in the lower city central area are busy at night on the weekends — and more concerning issues, like the fact that the demands on officers’ time has reached capacity.
The report shows, across Hamilton, the time police spent responding to events increased while time spent on proactive policing declined correspondingly.
"This finding indicates that workload demands on officers time has reached capacity," the report, authored by Debbie Gifford, says.
Overall, the number of calls that have warranted a police patrol response have declined since 2009, though the amount of time police officers spend on those calls has remained about the same (3.5 hours).
The most common calls are:
- Domestic violence disturbances
- Motor vehicle collisions
- Call requesting an ambulance
Additionally, Division One — which covers the lower city from Sherman Ave. to the Dundas, Ancaster border — frequently fields calls for assault. Police in the other two divisions often deal with family trouble calls, the report says.
Unsurprisingly, downtown police are busiest between 2 and 3 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday mornings — just around closing time at bars in the area.
The workload in Division Two and Three peaks on Friday and Saturday nights, between 11 p.m. and Midnight. (Division Two covers the lower city from Sherman east to the Niagara border and Stoney Creek Mountain, while Division three covers Hamilton Mountain and the suburbs of Glanbrook, Ancaster, Dundas and Flamborough.)
On a typical day, the report says, calls to police begin at 6 a.m. and increase in "almost relentless" fashion until 11 p.m., when they begin to fall off during the overnight hours.
In all divisions, the early officer — between 3 or 4 a.m. to 7 a.m. — gets the easy shift.
Downtown neighbourhoods improving
One interesting aspect of the report is its ability to break down calls for service by beat, providing snapshots of individual neighbourhoods.
According to the data, the Kirkendall and Durand areas are both improving, with lower frequency of calls for service than other regions, per 1,000 residents, of the downtown.
Data from the downtown core beat, however, are "not as encouraging," the report says. Calls for service in the Jackson Square, Hess Village and Hamilton Place area are both "frequent and time consuming." (The report does point out this data may be slightly skewed as this beat has a low population resident-wise, but regularly attracts thousands of shoppers and party-goers.)
Elsewhere, two beats East Hamilton had the highest increase in calls for police help per capita — though that number was still low, the report said.
Division Three, meanwhile, reported a workload concern in two Central Mountain beats that border the escarpment. Calls for service in those regions were consistent and time-consuming over the past three years.
Officers spend 11 per cent of time on lunch break
Other interesting statistics? Administrative workload, which takes up an average of 5 per cent of officers' time across the city, is higher in Division Two.
Meanwhile, the percentage of time attributed to lunch breaks was lower in Division 1, even though that percentage did rise slightly in recent years. On average, the report says, police officers spend 11 per cent of their time on lunch breaks. (For comparison, if you work a 40-hour workweek and take an hour each day for lunch, that's 12.5 per cent.)
The report recommends police continue to work with community-based organizations and other applicable agencies to cut down on the calls that dog police time, like domestic disputes. It also suggests reevaluating after this year, to see if the city's 12 new police officers helped alleviate the time crunch facing police, and if additional officers deployed to Mountain beats are having an impact on the data.
The report also recommends mining the Computer Aided Dispatch system for more data, which may help police change work schedules.
Board changes meeting times
The board also voted to change its monthly meeting times in 2015 to Thursday afternoons. The board will hold an in camera meeting at 1 p.m., before holding a public meeting at 2 p.m.
Former board chair Nancy DiGregorio, who decided to leave the board before last month's meeting, was thanked before Monday's proceedings. DiGregorio said one of her fondest memories of sitting on the board was taking a ridealong with Hamilton police officers that went until 3 a.m.