By Angela Brown

Town report sees property crime down, traffic offences up

Oct 16, 2018 | 12:00 PM

The latest crime report for the Town of Battleford shows mainly favourable results in most categories.

Battlefords RCMP Staff Sgt. Darcy Woolfitt gave an update for the third quarter of 2018, covering July to September, as well as a year-to-date tally to council Monday. 

For the third quarter, the numbers have increased slightly year-over-year due to a spike in traffic offences. However, crimes against persons, property offences and criminal code offences have decreased overall. He said more people installing video surveillance systems is making it easier to report crime and for the RCMP to track down offenders. In his report, Woolfitt said the RCMP are focusing on their Targeted Crime Suppression initiative, as well as the detachment’s work in developing a long-term strategy to reduce crime and identify chronic offenders. He added officers are working to “tackle street-gang related activity,” and to execute arrest warrants. 

Stats for the town show an overall decrease in the number of crimes year-to-date, at 827 calls, compared to 855 in 2017. Crimes against persons dropped from 25 for the quarter last year to just 14 in 2018. The year-to-date count has also gone down at 60 calls for the current year, versus 83 last year. For business break and enters, there were five reports for the quarter, one less than last year. The year-to-date count also dropped to six in 2018 compared to nine last year.

While residential break and enters saw a slight increase at five compared to four, the year-to-date tally saw more improved numbers with a total of nine for 2018 versus 19 last year.

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Property offences for the third quarter were about on par with 2017, at 98, compared to 97, however, in the year-to-date numbers, there was a more notable improvement, with just 205 in 2018 compared to 322.

Criminal code offences came in at 31 for the quarter, a decrease from 45 calls the year prior. The year-to-date count saw 54 calls versus 92.

Drug offence reports fared well with three for the quarter compared to seven last year. Year-to-date, there were 11 offences reported, compared to 12 last year.  

Impaired driving calls improved slightly at four for the third quarter versus six last year. The year-to-date numbers show 20 reports in 2018, slightly less than the 22 reported in 2017. 

Mayor Ames Leslie was pleased to see the numbers of severe crimes in the town drop.

“Either enforcement is not as high or people are learning and making it harder for crime to be committed,” he said following the meeting.

Numbers up in some categories

Categories where numbers are up included provincial traffic offences, which saw a whopping increase of 26 for the third quarter, more than double the tally of 12 for the same period last year. Year-to-date, those numbers also rose, coming in at 83 versus 66 last year.

The number of false alarms is also up to 25 for the quarter compared to 16 last year. The year-to-date count showed 81 reports versus 53 in 2017.

There were five vehicle collisions in the third quarter of, one less than last year. There was a notable increase, however For the year-to-date, with 24 reports compared to just 18 last year. 

angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow