Police chief provides new crime stats that suggest London getting safer

New LPS crime stats have shown a dramatic turnaround in public safety. With more on the numbers, here's CTV London's Daryl Newcombe.

New crime data presented to the London Police Services Board (LPSB) suggests a dramatic turnaround in public safety since the London Police Service was awarded a massive budget increase last year.

“We are moving in the right direction for the first time in many, many years,” Police Chief Thai Truong told the police board on Thursday.

Year-over-year policing data from 2024 includes:

• 45 per cent reduction in fatal motor vehicle collisions (12)
• 48 per cent reduction in shootings (14)

The report also states that London’s Crime Severity Index (CSI) dropped 14 per cent in 2023, the steepest decline among all Canadian cities.

The index is a measure of both the volume and severity of crime calculated by Statistics Canada.

“It is the first time we fell below the national average in over 10 years,” Truong explained. “All these metrics reported to the board today, they’re not coincidental.”

In 2024, the number of warnings and traffic tickets issued by London police jumped 53 per cent (14,620).

At the same time, the number of service complaints received about policing dropped 43 per cent (37).

The chief said modernizing systems within the police service has improved morale and contributed to the rapid turnaround.

“The hard work of our membership, that’s a huge piece,” he explained. “The other thing that we’re doing is holding leadership fully accountable for their areas of command.”

While progress is also being made reducing response times, the chief said there remains a lot of work to ensure timely responses to 911 calls.

Last year, Priority 1 emergency response times were down to 9 minutes and 36 seconds from 10 minutes and 2 seconds in 2023.

Mayor Josh Morgan pointed out that the crime statistics coincide with the first of four budget increases in city hall’s multi-year budget.

“We’re showing that budgets are investments,” Morgan told colleagues on the LPSB. “We’re investing tons of resources. We’re modernizing technology. We’ve got well-trained officers. So guess what? This is not a great place to do business if you’re a criminal anymore.”

In 2023, London police requested an unprecedented $672 million over four years in the (2024-2027) municipal budget.

Meanwhile, the police board has received a letter from the mayor and Budget Chair Elizabeth Peloza requesting they provide council with a list of potential budget savings for 2026.

The board responded by asking the chief to come up with a list of savings totaling between $1 million and $1.5 million.

“There’s no way that I would be compromising operations,” Troung assured board members. “But I would be looking at revenue generation, our revenue streams, and part of this is some risk tolerance.”

Newly appointed LPSB Chair Ryan Gauss agreed that budget savings would not compromise police operations.

“When we accepted this budget, this monumental historical budget from City Council, we were transparent that we were always going to try to find savings when we could,” Gauss told CTV News. “We were never going to stop to try to find efficiencies, but never compromise on public safety.”