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Date: December 19, 2018 |
On December 12, 2018, an article was released by MacLean’s Magazine listing Sarnia as one of the top ten worst cities for hate crimes.
As a result, a decision was made to look deeper into the incidents that were responsible for generating the numbers reported in the article. We wanted to first, determine if the numbers truly represent what is happening and secondly and most importantly what can the Sarnia Police Service do to respond to any of these concerns and ensure its community’s safety.
The article stated that in 2016 there were nine and a half hate based crimes per 100,000, and that in 2017 there were 16.1 hate based crimes per 100,000 people. The approximate population of Sarnia is approximately 71,594 as of 2016.
The Sarnia Police Service was able, through its own Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) / Classification Officer and with the assistance of a Data Production and Dissemination Development Officer from Statistics Canada, to look closer at both the data and the actual incidents.
It was determined that in 2016 the Sarnia Police Service investigated seven actual incidents and that in 2017 there were 12 incidents that were classified under hate bias crimes.
In 2017, four of the incidents generated were all based on the same act of mischief, where graffiti of a swastika was spray painted on the road way but due to different parts of the same investigation and different officers being involved, four incidents numbers were generated.
In each of 2017 and 2016, one arrest was made involving assaults that took place during the incident. In regards to both of these incidents, the accused had mental health issues that caused them to lash out randomly.
Calls entailed the use of slurs directed towards race, religion, or sexual orientation.
Also in 2017, a call involved the denying of a Seeing Eye dog and its master entrance into a business out of concern the dog may damage objects.
In 2017, three acts of mischief were reported that were related to hate crimes. One involved the painting of a swastika on the road (mentioned earlier in this article), in a second incident someone etched a racial slur on someone’s apartment door, and finally, someone used gas to burn a golf hole flag and the shape of a cross on the grass at a golf course.
The Sarnia Police Service takes all these incidents seriously but would like to make the public aware that the majority of these incidents were random in nature with no particular target. The Sarnia Police Service will continue to work with its community partners to ensure that we remain a safe city to live in.
Constable Giovanni Sottosanti
Media Officer
Tel: 519-344-8861 Ext 6168
Email: 168@police.sarnia.on.ca