Number of intimate partner violence incidents increasing locally: WRPS

The number of calls coming in related to intimate partner violence (IPV) has been rising, a report at the Waterloo Regional Police Service Board meeting revealed.

The first three months of the year have seen a 10 per cent increase in IPV-related calls compared to the last four years.

“Waterloo Regional Police recorded 6,244 IPV-related occurrences for 2023 and laid a total of 3,788 IPV-related charges. Looking across the previous two years, the number of charges and occurrences has remained stable with little deviation. Additionally, as of March 31, 2024, the police service has recorded 1,588 IPV-related incidents,” Insp. Aaron Mathias, who presented the report during the board meeting, said.

Females represented 71 per cent of those people who called WRPS about an IPV-related incident. Police said people aged 34 to 40 made up 32 per cent of that number, followed by people aged 20 to 30 at 31 per cent.

“Between April 1, 2023, and March 31, 2024, 115 victims of IPV were seen at hospital within 12 days of experiencing assault, 82 per cent of those victims had involved police and that demonstrates that 29 per cent are non-reporting at that time,” Mathias said.

Some local organizations joined together to create the Family Violence Project which aims at intervention and prevention for IPV incidents. They created a project that aims to engage men who have abusive behaviours within a relationship.

“The Family Violence Project is truly an asset to the entire region and the members of our community. The partners undertake difficult and meaningful work each day and will provide their significant expertise to our collective work to address intimate partner violence,” Mathias said.

From April 1, 2023, to March 31, 2024, Camino Wellbeing and Mental Health saw 1,496 clients affected by gender-based violence.

As part of the project, officers intervened early and checked on couples who had experienced at least two IPV incidents with non-criminal charges. They saw an 87.9 per cent decrease in IPV two months after intervention.

“While providing support and counselling is both responsive and preventative, newly adopted programs have demonstrated success at intervening at an early phase of IPV.”

WRPS also said that the region’s short-term crisis shelters are typically over capacity. They said it’s consistent with StatsCan reporting, which shows that 33 per cent of short-term crisis shelters were over capacity in 2022-2023.

“In between April 1, 2022, and March 31, 2023, 42 per cent of individuals using those same shelters were children, again consistent with national averages reported by StatsCan for 2022 and 2023.”

This comes as the Ford Government decides whether or not to hop on Bill-173, named the Intimate Partner Violence Epidemic Act. Last week, House Leader Paul Calandra said the government would support the NDP bill, which got a rare standing ovation in the legislature on April 10.

Calandra is now saying he wants to get more information, public consultation and expert opinions before pushing the bill through.