Guelph police launch new community policing webpage

The Guelph Police Service are hoping residents will use a new website to report crime and get tips to keep their community safe.

They have launched the Community Policing webpage where people can also get information on supports that are available.

“We invite our citizens to visit our new Community Policing webpage to learn more about our members and the services we provide,” said police chief Gord Cobey in a statement. “Working together with our community, we are committed to providing the best possible service and striving to ensure the health and safety of our community.”

Visitors to the webpage can access things like CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design) where they can have an officer come to their home or business and learn ways to make their property less inviting for criminals. Another is the Community Police Academy program where an officer can make a presentation to a community group to address issues such as fraud and drug use.

The webpage has been up for a couple of weeks and sergeant Chris Probst said it is already getting some use.

“We already had two CPTED assessment requests and two organizations go through the police academy,” Probst said. “It is starting to get some traction which is fantastic to hear. We just to keep pushing it and hope that trend keeps going up.”

The webpage is designed to make it easy for residents to report crimes and have an officer arrive at your door step to investigate.

“We wanted to come up with a way to keep up with the community,” said Probst. “(Reporting a crime) can be quite intrusive and a terrible feeling.”

Probst said the community policing page would not necessarily free up resources where police can focus on more serious crimes.

“It is a long-term plan where if we can prevent crimes with a healthy relationship between the police and the community, then we won’t need as many resources in the future.”

To visit the Community Policing page, there is a link on the Crime Prevention and Community Safety tab on the Guelph Police Service website.