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Pandemic impact a focus of latest RCMP report to council

Anyone hoping that the COVID-19 pandemic would mean a dramatic change in the crime numbers in North Battleford were in for a disappointment Monday.
Inspector Tom Beck of Battlefords RCMP meets North Battleford city council on Monday via ZOOM. Scree
Inspector Tom Beck of Battlefords RCMP meets North Battleford city council on Monday via ZOOM. Screenshot by John Cairns

Anyone hoping that the COVID-19 pandemic would mean a dramatic change in the crime numbers in North Battleford were in for a disappointment Monday.

Inspector Tom Beck appeared before city council Monday with the first quarter RCMP statistics for the city. These included the first numbers since the pandemic restrictions came in in the middle of March.

For the first quarter of 2020 running from January through March, there were 3,205 calls for service in North Battleford, up from 2,741 for the same period the previous year for a 17 percent increase.

A number of categories saw increases compared to a year earlier. Persons offences were at 269, up 17. There were 61 residential break and enters for an increase of 16 in that category. Criminal code offences were also up from 447 to 539.

Impaired operation of a motor vehicle also went up significantly from 41 to 72, provincial traffic offences were up from 254 to 306, and municipal bylaw offences went up from 15 to 23, with Beck citing these numbers as the biggest driver in the increased calls for service.

Liquor related offences were also up from 46 to 50. Drug offences were unchanged at 24.

The biggest declines cited in the report were in property offences. Those were down from 614 to 532. Business break and enters also went down from 16 to 12.

Notably, Beck said the RCMP was not noticing a massive increase in domestic violence calls in our area, although other jurisdictions elsewhere in the country are noticing an increase.

“We’ve actually been very lucky in that sense,” Beck said.

The activities of the detachment during the pandemic were also a focus of Beck’s presentation Monday.

Beck did report that their “policing environment had been changed pretty dramatically” due to the pandemic. He said they were just now getting back to normal procedures.

At the start of the pandemic, Beck said the RCMP tried to minimize some of their manpower on the road such as traffic stops, just to minimize contact between members and those potentially infected.

With warm weather arriving, Beck said they are seeing crime start to go back up and more gang violence happening. The indication from Beck is they are running back up to full numbers on their watches and their gang task force is now back up in operation as of this week.

Beck said the task force had made four arrests, three vehicle seizures and three checks on various gang members on their first day back up and running.