London police chief cites progress in first seven months of 2024

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London police are responding to calls more quickly, nearly holding the line on traffic tickets and having more community meetings and violent crime is dropping in the city, Chief Thai Truong says.

Those were just some of the statistics Truong, who pledged to make London safer when he became the city’s top cop in June 2023, presented to the police board Thursday.

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The metrics presentation, using data from January to July, was the first progress report Truong delivered since securing a four-year, $672-million budget from city council in February.

“We have to invest in this organization to make sure we can keep this community safe,” Truong said.

Response time for all three levels of calls for service have decreased. Officers took nine hours and 34 minutes to respond to the most-urgent calls from January to July, down from 10 hours and two minutes in the same period last year; nine hours and 11 minutes for calls for urgent issues and crimes that aren’t in progress, down from nine hours and 45 minutes; and 100 hours and 28 minutes for calls that don’t pose an immediate threat to public safety, down from 132 hours and 28 minutes.

“What this means is we’re getting to the community quicker,” Truong said. “We have a lot more work to do, but this is progress.”

Officers handed out 9,083 traffic tickets and warnings in the first seven months of 2024, nearly matching the 9,546 issued in the same timeframe in the previous year.

“What we’re doing is stopping cars and being visible,” Truong said, crediting a combination of road safety campaigns and beefed-up enforcement. “And that’s having a dramatic impact.”

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There were eight deaths from collisions from January to July, compared to 22 in all of 2023, the deadliest year on record for the city.

And there had been just four shootings by July – another three happened in the past week – down from 27 in the same period last year.

“There’s been lives saved,” said Truong, who singled out tackling gun violence as a top priority when he became the first chief hired from outside the force in more than 25 years.

London also saw a dramatic decrease in the crime severity index – a measure of the volume and severity of crime – with a 14 per cent decrease in 2023, bringing the city’s score below the national average for the first time in more than a decade.

Truong’s presentation drew praise from the seven-member board responsible for overseeing policing in the city.

Board member Ryan Gauss said the statistics are “a fantastic start” and called the update “a new level of transparency.”

“The data doesn’t lie,” Gauss said, adding there’s lots more work to do, especially bringing down call times. “This is just the tip of the iceberg.”

Board member Coun. Susan Stevenson said she  frequently hears from constituents who are scared.

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“This brings some hope that things can change,” Stevenson said.

Truong’s update also highlighted the measures police are taking to combat crime and win the community’s trust.

Officers have spent 2,599 hours in areas singled out for having high levels of violence and crime and they have participated in more than 100 community events, where police engaged with 13,031 residents. Just 16 complaints about police service have been filed this year, compared to 65 last year.

And more improvements are coming, Truong said, but it will take time.

Part of Truong’s plan to modernize the force and change the way police deliver service includes hiring 189 officers and civilian staffers, outfitting all front-line officers with body cameras, investing in a digital evidence management system and expanding the ranks and roles of special constables.

“It is not one thing we are doing, it is everything we are doing,” Truong said.

The four-year city budget crafted by Mayor Josh Morgan, who sits on the police board, and approved by city council contains steep tax hikes. Taxes jumped 8.7 per cent this year followed by increases of 8.7 per cent in 2025, 5.7 per cent in 2026 and 6.7 per cent in 2027. More than half of the 2024 increase was driven by the largest-ever police budget.

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The police board is facing criticism from its former chair and some city councillors after The London Free Press reported on Sept. 13 it paid the public relations firm Navigator $104,662 to help sell its four-year budget with a 28 per cent increase in 2024 while other city boards and commissions were making their own cases for funding increases from the city.

The Free Press learned the police board had hired the prominent public relations firm that has represented high-profile clients through a freedom of information request.

The board didn’t mention the hiring of Navigator at the meeting.

dcarruthers@postmedia.com

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