Second-quarter statistics are in for the Battleford town detachment of the RCMP and they show decreases in the majority of crime categories in the community.
According to the numbers presented to town council Monday, for the first six months of 2018 overall calls for service in Battleford stand at 507, down from 522 the previous year.
From January to June, declines are being shown in the following categories: person offences are down from 58 to 41; business break and enters down from three to one; residential break and enters down from 15 to four; property offences down from 125 to 106; criminal code offences down from 47 to 37; liquor act offences down from nine to three; and municipal bylaw offences are down from five to three.
Increases are shown in drug offences, from five to eight and in provincial traffic offences from 54 to 57. Impaired operation of a motor vehicle offences are unchanged at 16.
As well, motor vehicle collisions are up from 12 to 19. There were 56 false alarms and 74 calls for assistance during that time as well.
As far as quarterly statistics go, the trend is not quite as rosy. April to June saw slight increases in the persons, criminal code, break and enter and drug categories.
Person offences are up from 19 to 21, business break and enters up from one to two, criminal code offences up from 23 to 25 and drug offences up from 4 to 5.
But residential break and enters are down for the quarter from seven to three, property offences down from 74 to 67, liquor act offences down from four to one, provincial traffic offences down from 38 to 32 and impaired operation down from 12 to 11.
The second-quarter numbers were included in the presentation from S/Sgt. Darcy Woolfitt of Battlefords RCMP Detachment on Monday.
Of the numbers for this quarter, Woolfitt noted many of the persons offences “revolve around addictions problems and social issues.” As for criminal code offences, while there was not much change this quarter compared to 2017, Woolfitt noted those were down significantly compared to two years earlier.
In general, council members were happy with the overall numbers and downward crime trend in Battleford.
“I’m glad the numbers are down,” said Kevin Russell, deputy mayor for Monday’s meeting, to reporters.
“With the community that we live in, crime status has been at the forefront of all the citizens.”
Woolfitt said the force continues to be active with crime prevention efforts. He said targeted crime suppression controls and other initiatives are continuing as part of their long-term strategy. This includes identifying prolific offenders.
“We’re finding by conducting these activities that it’s curbing a lot of the recidivism of some of these people, which is good and it’s having an overall impact on bringing the crime stats down,” said Woolfitt.
Woolfitt also noted the provincial Crime Reduction Team, announced earlier this year, will be setting up at the detachment in September. This team is made up of seven members and all the activities are being based on “intelligence analysis on crime,” he said.
