By Angela Brown

Town crime report sees overall decline

Aug 14, 2018 | 2:00 PM

The Town of Battleford had mostly good news when it received its latest crime report for the current quarter, showing total calls for service slightly lower than the same time last year.

Battlefords RCMP Staff Sgt. Darcy Woolfitt presented the report covering April to June 2018, the second-quarter results, at Monday’s council meeting. 

While vehicle collisions and drug offences went up for the period this year, break and enters and crimes against persons saw a decline.

Woolfitt said in his report the RCMP are continuing their work on targeted crime suppression patrols and other initiatives. He said this work is part of the RCMP detachment’s long-term policing strategy to deal with crime. The project also helps police identify chronic offenders to deter future recidivism.

“It’s having an overall impact on bringing the crime stats down,” he told council. 

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Woolfitt said the provincial crime reduction team will be coming to the Battlefords in September as another support.  

Deputy Mayor Kevin Russell was pleased with the overall results from the latest town crime stats report.

“I’m glad that the numbers are down,” Russell said following the meeting. “With the community we live in, crime status has always been on the forefront with everybody, all the citizens. If the numbers are reduced in this quarter, then awesome. It’s a step, hopefully.” 

The breakdown shows that total calls came in at 507 for the period, a drop from 522 at the same time last year.

Some categories that saw an increase include vehicle collisions at 19 for the current year, compared to 12 for the same time last year.

Drug offences increased to eight for the 2018 period, slightly up from five in 2017.

Provincial traffic offences also increased to 57 in 2018 from 54 last year.

False alarm reports appear to be a concern at 56 for the period in 2018, compared to 37 last year. 

Calls for assistance also increased at 74 for this year, up from 64 last year.

Impaired driving charges were status quo at 16 reports each for both 2017 and 2018 for the second quarter.

In comparison, a greater number of offence categories experienced a decrease in the report.

Notably, residential break and enters dropped significantly, to four for the period this year from 15 last year. Break and enters to a business dropped to one from three.

Property offences also saw a decline at 106 for the 2018 period, compared to 125 for the same time last year.

Criminal code offences came in lower in 2018 at 37 calls, compared to 47 last year.

Crimes against persons were also down at 41 for the period in 2018, compared to 58 for the same time last year.

angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW