If break-ins are your business, you best prepare for hard times

The Sault Ste. Marie Police Service has beefed up its Break and Enter and Robbery investigation unit from two officers to four.

“Break and enters are a serious problem within our community, we have a large number of them,” said Detective Sergeant David West, the officer in charge of the Break and Enter and Robbery Unit, in a presentation given to the Sault Ste. Marie Police Services board Thursday afternoon.

“The percentage of break and enters being solved (has not increased) with the conventional methods that we’ve been looking at…and it really hasn’t changed over the last six or seven years,” West said.

Traditionally, between five to seven per cent of break and enters have been solved annually in the Sault over the past few years.

With that, Sault Police have launched Project DLINE, a new campaign launched by the four-member Break and Enter and Robbery unit.

In 2016, there have been 432 reported break and enters in Sault Ste. Marie as of the end of September, with 29 of those cases solved.

Project DLINE was launched September 19, and the expanded unit has solved five robberies out of 38 break and enters and robberies reported so far in October.

30 arrests have been made with 66 charges laid as a result of collaborative work done with Patrol Services, Investigation Services, Forensic Services and Crimestoppers information.

Over $15,000 in stolen property has been recovered and over $3,000 in assets have been seized from those accused in break and enters and robberies.

Vehicles used by individuals accused of break and enters and robberies will also be seized and held while their cases are before the courts.

“These guys do a phenomenal job,” Police Chief Robert Keetch told the board.

West said many of those arrested in break and enters and robberies are repeat offenders, individuals addicted to drugs who steal to feed their addictions.

“When we incarcerate them, it’s awful, it’s awful when we bring them in to interview them, they are sick…but there is treatment offered within the Algoma Treatment and Remand Centre, they stop doing break and enters, they do get better while they’re in custody and they get healthier.”

Hopefully they stay healthier, West said.

“When I’m talking to people we’ve arrested I ask them ’Are you going to do life 30 days at a time? When do you want that cycle to stop?’”

Prior to Project DLINE’s launch, previous anti-break and enter campaigns, such as Project IMPACT, ran for only a few months at a time, with the number of break and enters going back up after those targeted campaigns came to an end.

The new, expanded four-member break and enter team aims to stop that trend throughout the entire year, including the summer months when break-ins occur more often while residents are vacationing away from home.  

“By the time the project expires in June 2017 we’ll have come up with a permanent unit by then,” said Sean Sparling, Sault Ste. Marie Police Service deputy chief, speaking to reporters after the public portion of Thursday’s meeting.

Staffing the permanent, four-officer team (which will work largely from the Sault Police Services building, from where they will brief and direct patrol officers) is not expected to eat into the Sault Police budget.

“It’s a reallocation of existing resources,” Sparling said.   

“It’s intelligence led,” Sparling explained when asked how the team will step up the fight against break and enters.

“We should see an overall reduction in the number of break and enters in the community and an increased solve rate because we’re going to be able to target individuals we know are responsible for clusters of break and enters.” 

“They (police officers) are getting who’s involved in the break and enters, they’re getting their photographs and information on their vehicles, and that information is being put into our cars which have mobile data terminals in them.”

“We target individuals (involved in) clusters of break and enters…we’re taking that intelligence and turning it into pro-active action, giving that intelligence to uniformed officers so they have it available to them in their cars,” Sparling said.

Another item mentioned at Thursday’s board meeting was the use of Tasers by police during the month of September.

There were 11 reported use of force incidents during September, 69 so far this year.

Tasers were drawn and displayed, but not used, to de-escalate six situations last month.

Tasers, once carried only by supervisors and Emergency Services Unit (ESU) officers, are now carried by a greater number of patrol officers.

“It demonstrates the positive effect this less-than-lethal use of force option has in gaining compliance or de-escalating a situation,” Chief Keetch said.

“It’s very, very effective.”