DATE:

25 November 2013

TO/DEST:

Executive Director, Ottawa Police Services Board

FROM/EXP:

Chief of Police, Ottawa Police Service

SUBJECT/OBJET:

2012 ONTARIO MUNICIPAL BENCHMARKING INITIATIVE (OMBI) REPORT: POLICE SERVICES

RECOMMENDATION

That the Ottawa Police Services Board receive this report for information.

BACKGROUND

The Ontario Municipal Benchmarking Initiative (OMBI) is a collaborative performance reporting effort among 16 municipalities from Ontario, Alberta, and Manitoba. The annual performance benchmarking report presents approximately 900 measures spanning 37 public service areas and describes factors that influence the delivery of each service.

An Ottawa Police Service (OPS) representative participates on the Ontario Chiefs of Police (OACP) Expert Panel, which reviews submitted data for consistency and relevancy to the OMBI process. The OMBI publicly released its 2012 Performance Benchmarking Report on 16 October 2013, with police-related performance measures being presented herein.

DISCUSSION

The OACP Panel identified a number of measures falling under community impact, service level, efficiency, and customer satisfaction. For police performance, seven measures are publicly released:

§ Number of Police Staff (Officers and Civilians) - per 100,000 population is used to gauge police service levels based on authorized staffing. With 206 police staff/100,000 residents, the Ottawa Police Service is in line with the provincial median. With no changes in authorized complement, the ratio has declined by three percent as population of the city continues to grow.

· Total Crime Rate – is the reported number of Criminal Code of Canada incidents (non-traffic) per 100,000 population[1]. Ottawa’s 2012 crime rate was 3,918, compared to the Ontario median of 4,474, maintaining a similar placement/trend over the past three years. Ottawa had the sixth lowest crime rate in the Province, behind Muskoka (2,150); York (2,205), Halton (2,399), Durham (3,094), and Toronto (3,819).

§ Crime Severity Index – The CSI recognizes the severity of differing types of crime, in conjunction with counts of criminal occurrences and crime rates (where the lower the index number, the greater the relative safety of a community). The 2012 CSI for Canada is 75, while Ottawa’s CSI for 2012 fell to 57 from 58 in 2011 and 61 in 2010, 11 percent below the provincial median (64).

§ Violent Crime Rate – Reporting 542 violent criminal code incidents/100,000 population (down from 565 in 2011 and 600 in 2010), Ottawa is substantially below the provincial median rate of 886 (-39%).

§ Violent Crime Severity Index – the Violent Severity Index includes all violent offences (homicide, attempted murder, assault, sexual assault, robbery, criminal harassment, uttering threats, forcible confinement/kidnapping), with Robbery having the largest influence on the Index. Ottawa’s 2012 VCSI is 58 (down from 63 in 2011 and 69 in 2010), and is below the provincial median of 66.

§ Clearance Rate for Violent Crime – Criminal incidents are considered cleared when a charge is laid or recommended, or when cleared by other means. Clearance rates are reported in the year an incident is cleared, regardless of when a crime might have occurred. With nearly 67 percent of violent crimes cleared for in 2012, Ottawa Police fell below the provincial median of 72 percent.

§ Number of Criminal Code offences per Officer – provides an indication of workload, but does not fully capture the breadth of police activities such as traffic and drug enforcement, crime prevention activities, or assistance to victims. On average, OPS officers handled 27 Criminal Code incidents each of the past three years, below the provincial median of 31.

The OMBI Police Expert Panel notes a number of influencing factors including, but not limited to, the number of non-residents (including visitors, college/university students), the presence of specialized facilities such as airports or casinos, locally-determined call response protocols, along with changes in local demographic, social and economic conditions. In Ottawa’s case, its role as the Nation`s Capital, its size (2,757 km²), and urban, suburban, and rural geography, along with the proximity to the City of Gatineau across the Ottawa River, makes it somewhat unique in Canada.

The following table summarizes how the OPS compares to the median of the OMBI-reporting municipal police services in Ontario. Because placement below or above the median can be positive or negative, the various measures have been grouped as either ‘favourable’ or ‘not favourable’, depending on the generally perceived desirability of placement on the respective measure.

Figure 1: Ottawa Police Compared to 2011 Provincial Median: Publicly and Non-Publicly Reported Police Performance Measures

While there is room for improvement in some categories (i.e. violent crime and total clearance rates), the Ottawa Police Service generally compares favourably overall to the other OMBI-reporting police services in Ontario.

CONSULTATION

Consultation was not applicable.

FINANCIAL STATEMENT

There are no immediate financial impacts or implications from the results of this report.

CONCLUSION

Similar to the OMBI reports presented to the Board since 2005, the 2012 report presents selected indicators and data with which to gauge OPS performance against a provincial median.

Ottawa Police representatives will continue to serve on the OACP/OMBI Police Expert Panel, the national Police Information and Statistics (POLIS) Committee, the Executive Development Program at the Canadian Police College, and other venues that contribute to the ongoing discussion, improvement, and transparency of police performance measures.

The Board will also continue to receive quarterly performance information updates as part of the performance measurement framework contained in the 2013-2015 Business Plan: A Plan Where Everyone Matters.

(Original signed by)

Charles Bordeleau

Chief of Police

Responsible for report: Supt. Terry Cheslock

[1] OMBI-reported crime rate will likely differ from that published by Statistics Canada due to different population figures used – more current municipal estimates versus census figures