Zorra Mayor Meets With OPP Detachment Commander

Friday, 14 February 2020 12:58

Mayor for the Township of Zorra Marcus Ryan met with the Detachment Commander of the Oxford OPP recently to bring up some of the residents' concerns.

ZORRA TOWNSHIP - An escalation of relatively minor crimes has happened over the past year in Zorra Township and Thamesford.

Mayor for the Township of Zorra Marcus Ryan met with the Detachment Commander of the Oxford OPP to bring up some of the residents' concerns.

He says their complaints had to do with issues reporting a crime.

"The OPP was crystal clear that they still want people to phone and report anything. So if you have anything suspicious on or near your property, around your property, somebody's been touching your property, they want you to phone and report it."

Mayor Ryan says the OPP want you to report and they'll use their knowledge, expertise and skills to assess whether that is an important piece of evidence or not.

Some of the concerns that were raised include residents leaving a voicemail but not receiving a response. He says if you are dialling the numbers correctly then it shouldn't be an issue and do not call the detachment office to report an incident. Another concern was when residents were told to not call in if the crime was under $5,000.00, but Mayor Ryan says if you were told this, it was in error and OPP still want you to report any incident.

Mayor Ryan met with the Detachment Commander last Friday.

He says OPP want to be contacted, whether you want to report by phone or online.

"The reality, unfortunately, is that a lot of people that are committing these crimes are pretty good at it and they're going to see the cop car coming and they're going to hide. When the cop car goes by, they're going to go back to it. It's very difficult for the OPP to actually drive by and see somebody committing that crime where they're break into your car and take a wallet or a laptop, or a phone out of the vehicle. But the OPP are trying their best and if we can give them more information then it's only going to help them help us."

Mayor Ryan adds residents need to give police the information and they'll absolutely do their best to patrol the minor crimes.

He says OPP encourages all residents to report to them and they do not want discourage anyone from contacting them with any issues.