Waterloo Regional Police drew and fired their weapons less often in 2014 than in several years prior, new data released by the organization shows.
The police service released its annual report Wednesday, including a look at crime statistics for the previous year.
According to the report, total criminal offences logged in the region decreased slightly from 2013,
Violent crimes experienced nearly a nine per cent decrease, while sex-related crimes rose by 14.7 per cent.
One of the biggest crime trends was an increase in identity theft activity, with police reporting that crimes in that area more than doubled between 2013 and 2014.
Police say the increase can partially be chalked up to one major investigation into identity theft.
“Identity thefts have become a huge concern,” said Staff Sgt. Mike Haffner, noting that investigating a complaint can often involve an international effort.
The report also looked at other policing statistics, including RIDE checks – only 202 of which were conducted in 2014, down from 267 in 2013.
Also measured were police use-of-force stats, relating to how often various weapons were deployed.
According to the statistics, there were 114 times officers drew handguns in 2014 – down from 162 in 2013, and significantly lower than at any point this decade.
None of those incidents resulted in the weapon being fired at a person, although 29 animals were shot – again the lowest total of the decade.
Conducted energy weapons were fired by officers 26 times. That’s a slight increase over the 20 times they were used in 2013, and similar to the 27 deployments recorded in both 2012 and 2011.
Eight people reported being injured by police dogs in 2014, or the same as the total number of people so injured between 2010 and 2013.
Waterloo Regional Police officers have already deployed firearms twice through the first half of 2015 – one during the incident that left 20-year-old Beau Baker dead at a townhouse on Brybeck Crescent, and once at a townhouse complex on Morning Calm Drive in Cambridge.
