The Kenora OPP says it’s seen an alarming increase in interactions with youth.
Inspector Jim Neild says about one third of their reactive calls for service deal with people under the age of 24.
“We’re on a dramatic increase in the number of occurrences with youth involved with police,” Neild told the Kenora OPP Detachment Board on Tuesday.
“So, in 2022, there were 2,600 interactions with police and last year there were over 4,100.”
Neild adds those numbers make up a significant portion of the calls for service they see in Kenora.
“So, to put that in perspective, reactive of calls for service for the detachment last year was 18,5000. So just youth alone is 4,100. I think that’s about 30 percent. So, 30 percent of our calls for service would be youth.”
Neild says if they don’t deal with the issue, the youth will become the street people and drug addicts of the future.
(File photo)
