The Kenora OPP is shifting some of its officers’ duties.

Acting Inspector Jim Neild says they are trying to have officers on the street when they are needed.

“I don’t know if anyone has noticed, but our hours of work have changed a little bit,” Neild told council recently during his annual report to the city.

“We’re downtown at 6:10 am every morning.  The entire platoon is downtown any issues of social disorder are being interacted with.”

He says while property crime is down, interactions with youth have increase substantially.

“Our calls for service for youth have increasing exponentially, when dealing with youth.  We are currently looking at how we can support that, with our youth engagement, but also working with other partnerships, and other community services providers for youth in Kenora and how we can address this on-going issue.”

Neild adds they’ve also put a lot of effort and resources into RIDE (Reduce Impaired Driving Everywhere), with officers doing spot-checks for impaired drivers as early as 9:00 in the morning.

(File photo)