PoliceLogo

By: Nick Liard

Public complaints are up for the Greater Sudbury police but Police Chief Paul Pedersen says it’s no cause for alarm.

A report presented at last night Police service board meeting showed that complaints against the police force were up to 44 in 2014 compared to 32 the year before.

22 calls were found to be frivolous or made in bad faith, and just one of those calls was substantial.

Complaints can happen from any interaction with police and Pedersen says the service received over 60 thousand calls last year and received just 44 complaints.

Pedersen could not comment on the current trial against Const. Christopher Labreche who is charged with assault but did confirm he is still in uniform and says they take every complaint seriously and look to ajust training methods accordingly.

 

Use of force stats were on par with years prior, but Deputy Police Chief Al Lekun says one area of concern is a rise in use of edged weapons.

Of 90 calls that required use of force last year, a subject was armed with an edged weapon 18 time, up from 11 times the year before.