South Bruce OPP's year-end police report for Brockton shows a decline in most categories of crimes except for murder, sexual assault and arson.
Statistics shared with Brockton Council show the number of sexual assaults increased from 13 in 2018 to 20 in 2019. That's a 53.8 per cent increase. There were three cases of arson last year, compared to one the year before.
And there was one murder charge after 53-year-old Steven Berfelz was found dead in early January 2019. There were two fatal collisions in the Brockton area in 2019.
South Bruce OPP has also released some year-end crime statistics for the municipality of Kincardine.
The number of sexual assaults nearly doubled from 11 in 2018 to 20 in 2019. That's an increase of nearly 82 per cent. There were two abductions last year, compared with one in 2018.
Other crimes reported such as theft, and fraud decreased. In all, violent crime declined by just over 11 per cent, and property crime by 6.7 per cent.
When it comes to motor vehicle collisions, there was one fatal crash in 2019, after 2018 saw no collisions resulting in death.
Personal injury collisions were down by 50 per cent.
