Police chief: downtown Aylmer is safe

Aylmer Police Chief Kyle Johnstone is offering reassurances to families who may have left Aylmer Old Town Hall on Oct. 15 with doubts about their children’s safety.

During a council meeting there about the future of the library, a couple speakers suggested the town was unsafe for youngsters.

Local realtor Johnny Friesen and Aylmer Councillor Kathryn Desrosiers questioned whether children are safe to walk to a library in the town’s core.

Chief Johnstone said Aylmer enjoys a 2024 Crime Severity Index (CSI) of 48.5 overall, compared to the Ontario CSI of 60.7 and 77.9 across Canada. Lower numbers reflect lower crime rates.

Aylmer’s CSI, calculated annually as part of a national Statistics Canada survey, decreased by 16.18 percent between 2021 and 2024. The Police Service’s 2024 annual report also states 2023 CSI was 44.7, a decrease of 18.7 percent from the previous year.

“We have an extremely safe community within the town of Aylmer,” said Chief Johnstone. “I believe we have one of the safest downtown communities in the area, due mostly in part to our proactive community-based policing.”

Asked whether there have been any incidents involving children in recent years, the chief said: “Nothing comes to mind, nor do we have any occurrences that apply in recent years.

“I have no concerns about the safety of children downtown or around the library,” said Chief Johnstone. “This of course is so long as children are age-appropriately supervised by parents. Our downtown and our entire town is considerably safe.

“Our service has made visibility an enhanced priority over the last year and our commitment to this is evident with our foot patrols in the downtown core in particular,” he added. “Additionally, having a municipal police service that is able to focus on the specific policing needs and wants of our town ensures we are where we need to be when the public expects it.”

During the Oct. 15 council meeting, Cr. Desrosiers said: “As far as the accessibility and walking (to a downtown library), I agree with Mr. Friesen. I am a parent. I have a child. It wouldn’t matter if the library was across the street. Personally, I wouldn’t allow my child to walk there alone.

“I would ensure they get there, whether I walk with them, drive them, get someone else to take them,” she continued. “I think we live in a much different world than we did maybe 10-15 years ago and, walking anywhere in this day and age, as a parent I wouldn’t allow my child to do that.”

In an e-mail message on the weekend, Cr. Desrosiers added: “My comment reflected a personal parental perspective, in agreement with Mr. Friesen’s observation about general safety awareness today. It was not specific to the downtown, nor was it based on statistical data.”

Mr. Friesen admits his view on safety may have been influenced about two years ago when he heard a stranger tried to lure a young child in his extended family into a vehicle.

“It’s not just a random claim,” Mr. Friesen said in an interview on Monday Nov. 3. “I have kids. They go across the street like 1990s kids. They go play with their friends. Once it gets dark, they come home.

“They go in a team so that we don’t have to worry about the younger one getting hit by a car when they cross the road.” added Mr. Friesen, “But would I let them walk downtown? You know what, with some of the stuff I’ve interacted with in the downtown over the years, I wouldn’t trust little kids walking downtown.

“We’ve got a wonderful small town, I love it,” said Mr. Friesen. “Thank God our town is safe. We still have our doors unlocked all day long. But things are changing across the board. Our country is changing faster than it ever has.”

To calculate the CSI, StatsCan assigns each type of crime a weight that represents its relative severity. Assigned weights are based on standardized information from court sentencing data over the previous five years. Crimes that are more likely to result in prison time and longer sentences are given a higher weight. Then, the number of police-reported incidents for a given type of crime is multiplied by the crime’s weight.

For example, murder has a weight of over 8,200, while property theft has a weight of 29. As such, the impact of one murder on the CSI is approximately 280 times greater than one property theft.

For the violent crime severity index, the five contributors are homicide, robbery, sexual assaults, assaults, and uttering threats.