Community News

POLICE SERVICES BOARD WRAPS FOR SUMMER

TARA LINDEMANN tlindemann@sachem.ca

Haldimand County Police Services Board met on May 24 for the last time before holidays. Here are a couple highlights.

Coun. Bernie Corbett, referring to an increase in the number of reported incidents involving people with mental health issues, asked, "(I) wonder, are they getting support, are there more mental health issues in our community?"

"Yes, there is," said Insp. Phil Carter.

Carter said that increased attention in the media played a part in more people willing to come forward to report domestic abuse. He added that the detachment is working on adding more members to the Mobile Crisis Rapid Response team — a partnership between the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and the OPP, providing officers with an experienced mental health professional to go with them as first responders during calls involving people experiencing a mental health crisis.

"We did highlight there's more apprehensions in the Mental Health Act, there's more calls for service for people in mental health crisis ... It's real in our community, and we are responding in each and every way," Carter said.

OPP SUPPORTS COUNTY PURSUIT OF AIRBNB BYLAW

Council recently approved the pursuit of a bylaw that would target unruly behaviour at shortterm rentals, and Carter said he fully endorsed the action, although data had been slim.

Carter said that while the detachment does not currently document calls that would reflect that a complaint or disturbance had happened at a shortterm rental property, they would look into measures to aid county efforts to collect data as it pursues a bylaw.

"Due to the emerging trend, we'll have to track this more specifically," said Carter.

"I do feel for the residents (because) you don't know who is there on a weekly basis, which causes a problem because if the property owner is a corporation and/or is someone who we can't contact, that is a problem, so we're going to work on it."

OPP NEEDS INCREASED SUPPORT FOR MOBILE CRISIS RAPID RESPONSE TEAM

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2022-06-23T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-06-23T07:00:00.0000000Z

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