Loss of police COR Unit raising safety concerns in high-crime neighbourhoods
CTV
A London woman reacts to police arresting two people in possession of a handgun and drugs in the driveway of her home.
"It was a terrifying way to wake up." In the early morning hours of Nov. 7, London police arrested two people in possession of a handgun and drugs in the driveway of Cristiana Carovillano’s home.
“I’m alone, so it’s pretty scary,” Carovillano recalls. “There was an incident the following day and I did call the police, and that’s when I found out the COR Unit is no longer available to us.”
Police Chief Steve Williams recently disbanded the Community Oriented Response (COR) Unit, redeploying its 14 officers to address a steep rise in complex calls and investigations.
“I’m not sure being so lean and efficient is always something to brag about because there’s a cost for that,” Chief Williams tells CTV News. “Right now, what I think we’re seeing is that manifest itself in a delayed response time.”
Response times to life-threatening code 1 emergency calls are 27 per cent longer, it’s taking police 97 per cent longer to respond to code 2 crimes in progress, and non-emergency response times are now measured in days — not hours.
The focus of the COR Unit was proactive policing including quick intervention to prevent escalation to more serious crimes.
Its team of officers had the flexibility to target chronic neighbourhood issues anywhere in London.
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