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Hanover Police Service is sharing their 2023 Annual Report.
On Monday, June 17th, Chief Chris Knoll shared his report with Hanover Town Council.
He shared that calls for service in 2023 were 6 percent higher than the previous year, with a total of 5,537 calls, most of which were calls for help, but some that did require police intervention.
“Not every [call] we respond to we’re able to diffuse. Not every single time,” Knoll told council. “I will say we are very good – and police don’t give themselves enough credit – we are very good at diffusing situations.”
The overall severity of crimes committed had decreased by 3.3 percent.
While violent crimes saw a 15.2 percent increase, and non-violent crimes were down 8.8 percent from 2022.
“Our community is safe. We have a safe community. We have very few stranger-on-stranger type of assaults.”
Through the 2023 operating year, the number of prisoners held in Hanover lockup facilities increased, with 312 prisoners.
Knoll says that only around 35 percent of people who ended up in HPS holding cells are Hanover residents. He says that a majority of them are either people of no fixed address, or people who have travelled to Hanover from elsewhere.
One statistic that is also of note is that the Hanover Police Service has a very high clearance rate, which looks at the percentage of crimes committed compared to the number of charges laid.
“We have to make sure that people are held accountable for their actions. We are well above the provincial average, and well above the national average for clearance rates,” said Knoll. In 2023, the HPS clearance rate was 55.1%.
Their operating budget was $3,370,800, and actual expenses came in under budget at $3,256,845.01.