Staff-Sgt. Jason Teniuk addresses council, shown in a screen capture of the online meeting. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Angela Brown

RCMP update

Increase of vehicle thefts, drug offences; impaired driving down in latest RCMP report for city

Aug 18, 2021 | 9:58 AM

The Battlefords RCMP are reporting an increase for calls in the second-quarter report, covering April to June 2021 for the city.

Staff-Sgt. Jason Teniuk presented the findings to North Battleford council at Tuesday’s meeting.

For the period in 2021, the RCMP responded to 4,549 total calls for service, compared to 3,835 for the same period in 2020, a 19 per cent increase.

Teniuk said this quarter period is usually not as busy as it was this year for the RCMP.

“We’ve gone up. But the veracity of the crimes have gone down,” he added. “That’s a good thing.”

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Assaults saw an increase of six per cent with 193 reports for the period in 2021 compared to 182 for the same time in 2020.

Property offences increased as well at 983 reports from 867 for the period in 2020, or a 13 per cent rise.

Within the property offences category, thefts were up significantly at 297 reports for the period in 2021 compared to 159 for the same time in 2020, an 87 per cent increase.

Vehicle thefts in particular increased by 67 per cent with 60 reports for the period in 2021 versus 36 for the same time last year.

Teniuk said many of these thefts are cases of people leaving their keys in their vehicles. He reminds everyone to not store their keys or other valuables unattended in their cars or trucks. Even keys hidden inside vehicle visors or under car mats can easily be found by thieves.

Also under the property offences group, possession or trafficking of stolen goods reports increased by 250 per cent with 21 reports for the period this year compared to six for the same time in 2020.

For these numbers, Teniuk said, while the per cent increase value is high the actual numbers are not huge.

“It’s just a matter of members stopping vehicles and coming across the stuff,” he said.

Drug-related offences increased for the second quarter in 2021 with 44 reports for the period compared to 36 for the same time in 2020, or a 22 per cent increase.

Teniuk credits the work of North Battleford’s Gang Task Force tackling crime, in helping get a significant amount of drugs off the streets.

The number of vehicle collisions went up with 57 reports for the quarterly period in 2021 compared to 38 last year, a 50 per cent increase.

“I want to encourage everybody that is driving to adhere to the rules of the road,” Teniuk said.

He reminded people not to text and drive or engage in any other prohibited activities while operating a vehicle.

On the positive side, there have been decreases in several categories in the latest RCMP report.

There were 65 impaired driving related offences for the period in 2021 down slightly compared to 67 reported for the same time in 2020.

Robbery offences were down with two reports for the period in 2021 compared to four for the same time last year, a 50 per cent decline.

As well, there were no reports of homicides for this period in 2021 while in comparison there were four cases in 2020 for the same time.

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow