It has been almost eight months since the London Police Services got an increase in their budget back in February. That increase was of $672 million over four years. Police Chief Thai Truong gave city council an update on London’s progress this year so far. This update looks into everything about the LPS except for budget, which will be discussed as a separate matter in a different update.
“One of the things that we really did and put at the front of our organization was investing in our people and investing in our people to make sure that they put the community at the front of everything that we do,” says Troung. “We’ve changed our organization’s vision our values to put the community at the heart of everything we do and from a strategic lens and a leadership lens we’ve embedded everything that we do to ensure that we’re thinking about the community,” added Truong.
The main points the chief wanted to point out in his presentation are about crime in London. The city’s crime severity index is lower for the first time in a long time, than the national average. Shootings in London have decreased and so have fatal collisions. Through his presentation the chief shows that the city has overall become safer. One of the leading challenges however, for the LPS is response times.
“I will also say that recognizing that members in the community, some members in the community in certain areas where they live, and work may not feel safe. I would say two things; one our organization is planning for some town halls if you will, led by us inviting members of the community,” says Troung. “We want to hear that feedback you don’t have to wait until those town halls start coming in November. We’re very accessible we listen to complaints and concerns as often as we can,” adds Troung. “I’ll also say that although it’s a four-year plan for the budget and it’s a two-year roll out for the service delivery change, we’re changing inside in our organization our leadership. Our leadership we’re moving we’ve moved people around and restructured we’re continuing to restructure and continuing to evolve as an organization, this although it’s been 7 months since the budget approved, we’ve only just made some of our changes and our changes from a leadership level,” comments Troung.
(Photo Credit: London Police Facebook)
It is no secret that London’s population is growing. This can result in the city’s emergency services taking longer to reach their patients and or callers. Troung explains that the LPS is looking into an app to allow for faster response times. The app would allow city councillors to be able to directly contact London police. It would also give civilians better access to police. This potential app could help police send the appropriate amount of cops to a scene instead of too many, which is a concern for some city councillors.
“I’ll say if you’re looking for timelines forget about the 2-year Mark our goal is by summer next year there is a marked, marked difference,” says Truong.
Troung wanted to put an emphasis on the fact that it takes anywhere from 8-10 months to start seeing the affects of the budget increase, since that is how long it takes train new cops. The chief would like to set more realistic goals, but overall London has improved in all of it’s stats across the board this year.
