Another year is in the books for the Altona Police Service (APS) and Police Chief Dan Defer is ready to slap the cuffs on the challenges of 2024.
Overall, Defer says the last year was a good one, but admitted that returning the department to a full complement of officers took up a lot of time and required patience. Two constables left the team earlier in the year and that, noted Defer, left the team with two options on how to move forward.
"There was a quick fix option and there was a more painful option," he said. "At some point, we knew we'd face this dilemma again, so we decided this was the time to make a move and we didn't go for the quick fix."
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While the department could have hired trained officers from other services in order to immediately fill the need, Defer says they've often found that these are the officers that eventually leave for other opportunities. So, instead, the decision was made to hire local, untrained people who want to spend their careers in the community.
"This resulted in them being sent away for training, so they were not here. They left in mid-July and graduated in mid-December and now they still have their field training portion to go through, so come July 1, they will be on their shifts. It's basically a year's process," explained Defer.
During this time, Defer said officers logged many extra hours to ensure the citizens of Altona were not affected by the vacancies.
Surprising crime trends
When it came to crime trends in 2024, Defer says it was a relatively normal year compared to others. However, he continues to be surprised by how many scams and fraud attempts turn out to be successful.
"We try to educate (the public). We've hosted community discussions, and we post on social media. I know the people doing the scamming are getting smarter and more elaborate but, at the end of the day, it's still surprising to see how many of these are successful. It's not just in one age category and in different areas too. Not just financial, right down to incidents of, and this was the first time that we'd seen this, sextortion."
Meeting goals
Despite the challenges of the last year, Defer is confident the department met several of the goals set out in its strategic plan. In particular, the emphasis on community engagement.
In 2024, APS formalized the appointment of Corporal Legal as its Community Liaison Officer.
"Any time an organization is looking at having police come and do a presentation, we've done a few at Gardens on Tenth where they do fraud seminars, Corporal Legal would then organize and host it," he explained.
Additionally, Constable Fournier-Jones was appointed the department's School Liaison Officer.
"This is an officer that goes to the schools, makes contact with certain individuals within the school administration and that way, it helps them too if they've got any questions or concerns. They have on contact point. Just keeping the avenues of communication open."
As well, Defer emphasized his commitment to further increasing officer visibility in the community in the coming year, allowing the public a chance to see them and get to know them.
If you'd like to read the full APS 2024 annual report, click here.