Bracebridge OPP has increased ATV patrols in several remote areas of Georgian Bay Township in response to people discharging guns in a careless and unsafe manner.
That’s according to Detachment Commander Wade Beebe, who addressed Georgian Bay Township council at a meeting on Oct. 6.
Beebe said calls reporting gun shots, target shooting and mischief began in 2023. Over the last three years, officers have responded to 58 weapons related calls in the Tower Road area, west of Mactier. He said, so far, those calls have led to four arrests and a handful of weapons related charges.
At the meeting, Georgian Bay Township Mayor Peter Koetsier voiced his frustrations over the situation.
“I think I share with everybody this disappointment that we remain scared to go on some sections of crown land,” he said.
Koetsier did commend the OPP for their efforts to improve public safety in the area.
“I greatly appreciate the fact the issue has been elevated, and that you have been arresting people where appropriate. Maybe I am too naïve but I just believe that some of these folks need to be in jail. Full stop,” he said.
“And the more you can do to put the appropriate people away so that everyone else can do what they do responsible….I know you do that every day. I am just encouraging you to get these yahoos out of everybody’s backyards, not just ours.”
According to Beebe, the OPP opened up a sub-office in Mactier a year ago, and have assigned a full-time detective to patrol and respond to calls on Tower Road and on Crown land in the area.
