City Manager Randy Patrick, left, and RCMP Insp. Tom Beck, right, shown at the online meeting Monday. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW Staff) 

By Angela Brown

In the chambers

RCMP’s latest crime report shows overall increase in North Battleford

May 12, 2020 | 8:56 AM

North Battleford has seen total crime numbers increase by 17 per cent from January to the end of March in the latest RCMP report.

Battlefords RCMP Inspector Tom Beck gave his report to council at its online Zoom meeting Monday.

He said the reason for the increase would likely be due to a rise in impaired motor vehicle incidents, and bylaw and traffic offences.

Impaired driving related reports saw a significant 76 per cent increase, with 72 reports for the first quarter in 2020, compared to 41 for the same time in 2019.

Beck said in addition to police response, likely more of the public calling in to report impaired drivers would have contributed to the tally. As well he said there is evidence of an increase in alcohol use during the COVID-19 pandemic in general, so the rise in the number of impaired driving reports doesn’t surprise him.

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Residential break and enters climbed by 36 per cent in the first quarter, with 61 reports in 2020, versus 45 for the period last year. Business break and enters were down by 25 per cent in comparison.

Mental Health Act calls increased by 36 per cent from last year’s tally for the period.

As a positive sign, Beck said the RCMP detachment has not experienced an increase in domestic violence reports.

“In comparison to some of our counterparts elsewhere that are seeing very significant increases in domestic violence, we haven’t been seeing a massive increase in domestic violence calls at all,” he said.

As part of operational procedures, Beck mentioned during the start of the pandemic the detachment tried to limit some of its manpower on the roads for the staff’s safety.

“We minimized some of the items we were doing such as traffic stops, just trying to keep some of our officer-violator contact down in order to protect the membership, and to protect the city staff that work here as well,” he said.

It was noted the Battlefords RCMP Gang Task Force is back on the road again targeting offenders.

Beck said the team had positive results last year and plan to continue their efforts this summer.

He gave an update on their work in his report.

The task force aims to remove guns and drugs from the streets to improve safety.

Mayor Ryan Bater was pleased to see the task force has been reactivated.

“That is very encouraging,” he said. “We’ll continue as a city our advocacy to see some permanency to that unit in the future.”

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angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow