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st tribune march 3 1 insight police chief recycles york force tracy kibble staff reporter yorks cops were financially handcuffed this year and singing the overbudget blues in a growing region where 685 uniformed officers are sup posed to police 530000 people something had to be done to free up some manpower but with a that the force had several exclusive units set up when the economy was booming in the late 80s we had a substantial num ber of officers serving specialty units but now the economy is bad my decision was to make a move to redeploy and transfer people to other areas to better serve the publics need cousineau said he said the forces 685 uni formed officers and 140 civilian workers were reshuffled a move that found 16 more officers to parole yorks streets i needed a way to provide york remains safest to live work 60million budget and loads of tax we a r y ratepayers screaming for economic restraint the forces top brass had to rethink its strategy york region police chief bryan cousineau answered the call cousineau a veteran copand rookie chief came up with a game plan to put more cops on the street without hiring a sin gle new officer for 1993 cousineau played the 3rs with his force a game to reduce reuse and recycle offi cers cousineau decided to re structure and realign his force to fit the economic times by re assigning duties the chief told the tribune during an interview last week crime stat 10- york police have laid charges in eight murders of the 10 com mitted in 1992 in the region the other two are organized crimerelated and are under investigation 1200 i drug adult charges 1000 j 1 800 92 600 d 1 1 400 91 1 200 j 1 i youth york region is the safest place to live across the country and its residents are well protected by the york region police force insists chief bryan cousineau cousineau who has been yorks police chief since nov 1992 and the deputy chief since 1987 told the tribune that the most updated statistics show york region has the fewest number of criminal occurences pegged at nearly 36000 in 1992 than any other region of its size in the province the chief said a rash of recent robberies two in whitchurch- stouffville has worried the pub lic unnecessarily york region is still the safest place to live and to work in canada cousineau maintained he said an increase in crime which is unavoidable in a growing region like york will not deplete just because there are more officers on the street if there were another 100 policemen on the streets it would not stop the crime he said more officers will not deter crime what we need is public cooperation help us help you the chief said cousineau said yorks force like many other forces are getting back to the basics in policing were trying a different style of policing now back on the street many officers are now on foot patrol during the day cruiser patrol at night which allows more mobility and cousineau said whitchurchstouffville one of the regions quieter communi ties for the force is well policed just because you dont see an officer doesnt mean there is none around he said i want to assure residents that we are doing everything we can to make the streets safe there is no need for panic effective police service but i knew we were economically limited i decided moving around officers could do that without increasing manpower and without hurting protection to citizens cousineau said he added the force never asked to have his staff increased this year but admit ted he would need about 30 more officers next year if queens park pushes through a plan dubbed disentanglement to swap welfare services for road maintenance with the region cousineau said the 80plus kilometres of roadways the force would be responsible for would make it necessary to add about 30 more officers and five new cruisers cousineau said his plan should work well without addi tional officers because the entire staff is being used to their full potential but he said if the work load increas es he will be in an excel lent position to hire next year next time i can say i need more officers but i want to be everything i can without being a burden to the taxpayer cousineau said crime stat 35806 police filed reports on 35806 crimi nal occur rences in 1992 ranging from bike thefts phone complaints to murder police operating costs swell to 60m york region has the 12th largest police department in canada and remains one of the 12 lowest regional crime cen tres and thats something to be proud of says york regions police chief bryan cousineau all of that among a rising number of criminals and a region which is growing faster than any other in the province cousineau maintains the canadian centre for justice statistics show yorks 685 uni formed officers are doing their best to combat crime it currently operates under a robberies on the rise h t l 9 92 1 o v hhh police stats show robberies have nearly doubled in three years 50 100 150 200 250 300 store owner bitter after triple robberies bruce stapley correspondent when glenn woods opened his freel lane stouffville triple play sports cards store in 1989 he had no idea he would be the victim of a crimi nal triple play which would see his shop broken into three times in 18 months for woods who told the tribune after his most recent robbery last weekend that he takes the breakins personal ly the apparent rise in crime in york region is a sim ple matter of apathy and a law which makes it too easy for young offenders to get off the hook these thieves knew what they were doing they knew just where to go woods said its been the same pattern every time the same timeof night and the same way of breaking in but i just cant believe someone living nearby wouldnt have heard the noise and tried to do something peo ple just dont want to get involved woods who was out of town when his store was hit last week said he would normally have heard the alarm from his nearby home and would have been on the scene within min utes he felt the robbers who walked away with 7000 in goods were probably under 18 or just over left signs of being angry at not having found what they were looking for i dont leave my valuable cards in the store ajt night woods said he senses a frus tration bordering on a defeatist attitude on the part of the police when dealing with crimes involving young offend ers i dont blame them he said its the system thats lacking if the police do anything wrong out of protocol the case is thrown out of court and if they do get a conviction the young offender gets a suspend ed sentence or no sentence at all because hes a firsttime offender woods who is moving his store to stouffville place mall this week said he thinks its time that people everywhere including parents of teens get tuned in to whats going on i hope the recent rash of robberies wake people up i believe in looking out for each other the old golden rule and the whole thing just makes me wonder where the parents of these kids are 591 million budget after an approved 41 per cent increase this year cousineau said the majority of the increase was necessary to cover a 25 per cent pay wage increase which started in 92 an average uniform officer in york region earns about 51000 a year he said payroll eats up about 37 million of the forces budget but if the gov ernments disentanglement plans go through the depart ment will need an additional 30 officers and five cruisers cousineau says the force currently maintains and operates a fleet of 202 cruisers vans and other vehi cles costing about 500000 a year most of these vehicles run 24 hours a day cousineau says twfflhwwwsw kids earn extra money become a carrier today call 1 6402100 j stouffville attention flyer advertisers wc can deliver your flyers for as little as 4 a piece so far this year we have delivered 7161122 flyers doortodoor in markham unionville millikcn slouflvillc uxbridgc claremont dickson hill locust hill gormloy goodwood victoria square brougham hagcrman 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