LONDON, ONT. A new approach by London police is turning the tide after the COVID-19 pandemic sparked a steep rise in property crimes in the city’s core business districts. Dubbed Project Custos and Project Blockade expanded foot patrols in Downtown London and the Old East Village (OEV), and utilize crime data to deploy officers where their presence will be most effective. Since they were launched in February, property crime in those core business districts has to pre-pandemic levels. Merchants, we hear you,” says Inspector D’Wayne Price of the London Police Service. “We’ve used the data and the research to drive our response and to make decisions on how we deploy our people.”