“We have gang members living here and starting to do their work here,” he told a breakfast meeting hosted by the Milton Chamber of Commerce last week at Granite Ridge Golf Club.

Crowell gave attendees an overview of the challenges police are facing in Halton in light of the massive population growth and changing demographics.

With Milton doubling in size in the past eight years, there are constant concerns for police, he said, one of them being adjusting to changing types of crime.

Elaborating on the topic of gangs, Crowell said they’re spilling out of Toronto and “they’re coming our way.”

Crowell said he is requesting the creation of a Halton guns and gangs unit to make sure police are ahead of the wave.

“It can happen overnight,” he said of the problem.

Organized crime is also an issue.

“Organized crime is alive and well in Halton,” Crowell said, detailing the various groups that are active in the region, including biker organizations.

Although domestic violence is another type of crime that appears to be on the rise in Halton, Crowell said that increase could be because more victims are reporting the incidents.

In January, a domestic violence unit will be launched with 16 officers, Crowell said, with the hope of cutting down on repeat offenders and providing better protection to victims.

Still a very safe community

Cyber crime and crimes against the elderly are up as well and demanding more police resources, Crowell said.

But traffic issues continue to top the list of problems.

“There’s no question that’s the No. 1 complaint,” Crowell said.

But police are more prepared than ever to meet those concerns head on, he said, especially with the district response unit created last year to focus solely on traffic enforcement in Milton and Halton Hills.

Unfortunately, impaired driving is up. Drivers just don’t seem to be getting the message, he noted.

However, Crowell’s speech was not all bad news. He made reference to Maclean’s magazine having named Halton the safest region in Canada, and said that’s still the case.

“We’re living in a very safe community here relative to regions across Canada,” he said.

Halton Regional Police is also a particularly efficient service, with one of the lowest cost-to-population ratios in Canada, and one of the lowest management-to-staff ratios, he said.

“We’re meeting the demands of a growing population.”

Also speaking at the event were Halton Regional Police Service senior planner Keith Moore and Superintendent Signy Pittman.

To demonstrate the changing Milton population police now serve, Moore presented some statistics from the 2006 census.

They included that the median age of the average worker in Milton is the lowest in Halton, and that its immigrant population has increased dramatically, with 13,000 immigrants recorded living in Milton in 2006.

Milton is largely a commuter town, with just one-quarter of its workforce living and working in town, Moore said.

There’s a much wider variety of languages now being spoken in Milton homes, with Polish and Urdu topping the list.

Drivers speeding more

While in 2001 three per cent of the population was a visible minority, that figure rose to 17 per cent in 2006, Moore said.

Although Milton’s violent crime rate is higher than that of the rest of Halton, that’s mostly due to the fact Maplehurst and Vanier correctional facilities are located here, Moore said, and are the scene of frequent fights.

The property crime rate in Milton is lower by five per cent than the rest of Halton.

Pittman spoke mostly about traffic, saying she has noticed an increase over the past five years in the general speed at which drivers travel.

A new initiative to help target speeders is the SPEEDi video imaging system, which displays the speed passing motorists are going and takes a picture of the vehicle and licence plate.

Police then send the offending drivers a written warning to let them know their vehicle was observed speeding.

Halton police have also recently put cruisers on the road with beacons on the top similar to those on taxis; motorists including dangerous and impaired drivers don’t always notice cruisers, meaning officers can catch them more readily.

“It’s kind of a sneaky way of delivering service,” Pittman said.