Chief Marc Roskamp highlights several policing efforts aimed at lowering violent crime rates
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Joe Konecny • Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Sep 10, 2025 •
St. Thomas police Chief Marc Roskamp (Mike Hensen/Postmedia Network)
The most recent Crime Severity Index from Statistics Canada indicates that St. Thomas has seen a 17.57 per cent decline in overall crime severity over the last few years, even with a notable rise in violent crimes.
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The overall Crime Severity Index figure, which reflects both the quantity and seriousness of police-reported offenses, combines Stats Can’s report of a 31.76 per cent decrease in non-violent crime severity data from 2022 to 2024 with a significant increase of 22.3 per cent in violent crime severity during the same timeframe.
“While our progress is encouraging overall, we still need to focus on addressing violent crime with dedicated efforts from our officers,” stated St. Thomas Police Services Chief Marc Roskamp during a review of the Stats Can data at the city council meeting on September 2.
“Our immediate plan involves enhancing intelligence-led policing strategies, coordinating front-line responses, strengthening community partnerships, advocating for meaningful reforms within the justice system, and ensuring prompt intervention for high-risk individuals and situations.”
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The chief mentioned that establishing the department’s critical incident response team and other initiatives are crucial steps toward reducing violent incidents in St. Thomas.
“The launch of our (critical incident response team), ongoing investment in street crime and property crime units, bolstering front-line resources, creating a crime analysis unit, adding another K9 unit, and implementing redeployment strategies for all uniformed personnel will significantly impact reducing violent crimes in our city,” Roskamp’s report noted.
“This remains our primary operational focus moving ahead as we work diligently to deploy all approved resources. The investments made by the police services board and city council are yielding real results in decreasing both crime rates and social disorder within our community.”
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The chief emphasized that Statistics Canada calculates its index by assigning each type of offense a weight reflecting its relative seriousness based on standardized court sentencing data from the past five years. Crimes likely to lead to prison sentences carry higher weights than others.
The number of reported incidents for each type is then multiplied by its assigned weight.
For instance, murder holds a weight exceeding 8,200 while theft of property carries only a weight of 29; therefore one murder impacts the Crime Severity Index around 280 times more than stealing a wallet does.
The major contributors to the violent crime severity index include robbery, sexual assaults, assaults and making threats.
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Growth can bring new opportunities but it also creates unexpected social challenges such as demands on housing options mental health services support for youth programs as well as strains placed upon our justice systems ” observed Chief Roskamp’s report “With increased population density diversity along with rising needs demand upon emergency services community safety systems likewise rises.”
Addressing foundational issues like mental health addiction lack affordable housing needs collaborative approach beyond simply boosting police presence In my opinion strengthening these collaborations provides most efficient pathway forward alleviate pressure faced officers build lasting safety security wellbeing communities.
Joe Konecny serves as Local Journalism Initiative Reporter with Aylmer Express Government funding supports this initiative.
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