OPP recruitment up nearly 40% last year: report

NEWS RELEASE
ONTARIO PROVINCIAL POLICE
**************************
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) is pleased to release its 2023 Annual Report.

The new and improved electronic report has interactive content with links to additional information and statistics from previous years for additional context and includes embedded videos and podcasts. The annual report can be viewed on OPP website at opp.ca.

This report aligns with the OPP’s 2023-2025 strategic plan, which provides direction and guides the OPP’s actions through its people, work and communities priorities, which reaffirm its vision of Safe Communities…A Safe Ontario.

Did you know that in 2023, the organization hired and trained over 500 new recruits and experienced officers? This was an increase of nearly 40 percent from 2022. Through call dispatchers to frontline officers, the OPP received more than two million calls for service last year. In 2023, OPP officers were dispatched to a traffic incident every four minutes.

In an effort to keep Ontario’s roads safe in 2023, OPP officers initiated a traffic stop every 80 seconds, a 26% increase from 2022. Unfortunately, drivers continued to choose to drive with deficiencies. OPP officers have issued more than 11,000 impairment charges in an ongoing effort to protect the safety of all drivers.

In addition, the OPP’s Criminal Investigations Branch investigated 160 major crimes, including 40 homicides in 2023. The OPP also removed an estimated $15.4 million in street value of illicit drugs from the communities we serve through the activity of the Organized Crime Enforcement Bureau.

With the incidence of chronically violent offenders receiving pretrial release and subsequently committing other violent crimes, the importance of bail reform has been made clear. Following OPP appearances before several standing committees calling for significant legislative changes, several bail reform initiatives were introduced in 2023, including Bill C-48. This bill makes specific changes to the bail regime in the Criminal Code to address serious violent and repeat gun offenders in an effort to increase the safety of officers and all Ontarians.

These are just a few of the highlights presented in the OPP’s 2023 Annual Report that illustrate the OPP’s commitment to fighting crime and enhancing community safety in its jurisdictions across Ontario. The the full report can be found here.

“I am extremely proud of our organization’s accomplishments over the past year. Our commitment to the safety and well-being of the communities we serve in the province remains unwavering.” — OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique

**************************