Greater Sudbury police propose dedicated homicide unit in response to troubling trend
There were 10 homicides in Sudbury in 2022
The growing number of homicides in Greater Sudbury over the last several years has the city's police service proposing the establishment of a dedicated homicide unit.
According to Statistics Canada, in both 2017 and 2018, one homicide was reported each year. That number grew to three murders in 2019, five in 2020 and six in 2021.
As 2022 drew to a close, police reported 10 homicides, with a cluster of murders taking place at the tail end of the year.
Barry Ornella, a detective sergeant with the police service, said recent trend has been troubling to watch.
"I grew up in this community, I've raised a family in this community, I have family here, I have friends here. It's not a number we should ever become comfortable with or make excuses for," Ornella said.
Ornella said six of the 10 homicides over the last year were related to gun violence.
According to Sudbury police, out of the top 15 police services across the province, based on population size, Greater Sudbury ranks first as having the highest violent crime severity index. This is the second year in a row that the city was ranked first.
Sudbury sits at 56 when compared to the other 326 municipalities across Canada.
"When I started in the criminal investigations unit years ago, two homicides was a lot. Anything beyond that was considerable. So when we look at 10, not only 10 homicides but we look at shootings and instances where firearms are being shot at houses, or places like malls, or unfortunately most recently in a hotel with other innocent people inside of it, it is concerning."
"When we're averaging one a month or even more, that's concerning."
Money, time and resources
Ornella said that homicide investigations tend to be complex and can require a lot of time and resources, which can have a taxing effect on the police service's ability to accomplish day-to-day tasks. He said that establishing a dedicated homicide unit would help to save money, time and resources.
"This unit will not only be responsible for investigating active homicide investigations but that also expands to cold cases, missing persons and that sort of thing. So there will never be a shortage of demand for that unit," he said.
At a Police Services Board meeting on Thursday, Greater Sudbury Police Chief Paul Pedersen said that establishing a homicide unit would also allow for the service to dedicate more time to missing persons cases.
"Through the MMIWG [Missing Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls] recommendations, we have to take and should take a more serious look into missing persons, specifically in the area of Indigenous women and girls and [we] have to treat those all as potential foul play until we can show that they are otherwise."
"That's an investment in investigation and an investment in people," he said.
According to the proposal, the service would launch the unit with four officers assigned to investigate homicides. It would be part of a strategic staffing initiative that would be implemented between 2023 and 2025..
Pedersen added that as part of this plan, the service would like to also include two more officers to its drug enforcement unit and another 18 officers to its patrol operations.