A recent report from Statistics Canada shows Waterloo regional police rank among the lowest when it comes to case clearance rates compared to 11 other major services across Ontario.
The report was presented to the Police Service Board on Wednesday.
Weighted clearance rates are represented by the proportion of criminal incidents solved by police, analyzed by the severity of the offences. Clearance rates tend to be higher for violent crime when compared to non-violent crime.
Waterloo region ranked 11th in weighted clearance rate, 12th in violent weighted clearance rate and sixth in non-violent clearance rate.
Staffing shortages were identified by police chief Mark Crowell and deputy chief Jen Davis as significant contributing factors.
According to the report, WRPS had the second fewest officers per 100,000 residents at 122, coming in just ahead of the Halton Regional Police Service.
The most well staffed services of the remaining ten, in order, are Windsor, Toronto, Greater Sudbury, Niagara, Peel, Hamilton, London, Ottawa, Durham and York.
As the service continues to hire new officers, Davis points to crime suppression and identifying trends as critical strategies to improving the service's rates.
"We're really focusing our crime suppression strategies around this," Davis said.
"It's focusing on how we bring crime levels down. It's about prevention of crime in the first place. The second piece is ensuring our investigations are done thoroughly so we're actually able to solve crime and bring our crime clearance rates up."
Crowell noted from a public safety standpoint, there's no acceptable level of non-cleared crime but emphasizes the complexities of the service's capacity.
"I never expect us to be at 100 per cent," Crowell said.
"But I can say we're dedicated to taking every investigative avenue possible to not only meet clearance rate capacities but helping victims of crime in any way possible."
He pointed to wraparound partnerships within the community that can assist during and after the investigation is complete.
"We're making best efforts," he said.
"We do pay attention to where we stand in comparison to other services across Ontario, across Canada and certainly across the world and we're committed to being as efficient and effective in our response as possible."