BATTLEFORD - The latest quarterly RCMP crime report shows overall numbers have dropped for the Town of Battleford.
Battlefords RCMP Insp. Ryan How presented the report at town council's recent meeting.
Total numbers for the April to June 2025 period reflect 303 reports compared to 320 for the same time last year; that represents a five per cent decrease. The year-to-date numbers show a 17 per cent decrease in the five-year period overall.
"We're seeing some decrease in crime trends, specifically both Persons Crimes and Property Crimes," How said. "I will caveat that by saying that we're not patting ourselves on the back in the detachment. It's coming at an expense, the expense being almost the entirety of our resources are dedicated to prolific offenders. So, our members are spending the vast majority of their time arresting and re-arresting and investigating the same people over and over. They are doing a very good job of it. I wish the public could see how exceptional the response is by the members, by the RCMP in this area."
He said within days or weeks, the same people are often back on the streets again, however.
"That effort to decrease the stats is coming at the expense of visibility and response times, which the public wants us to address, but there simply aren't enough resources to tackle the serious crime and increase visibility and response times as well," How said. "We'd also like to spend a lot more time on property crime, but again our resources have to be dedicated to these prolific offenders."
The statistics show Persons Offences is down by 15 per cent for the quarter, at 23 reports from April to June in 2025, compared to 27 reports for the same time last year. Persons Offences are down 12 per cent overall in the past five years.
Property offences, decreased 23 per cent in the past quarter, at 69 reports for April to June 2025 compared to 90 for the same time last year. They dropped 20 per cent in the past five-year average.
Battleford Mayor Ames Leslie summed up the RCMP report saying there are a select few individuals or groups in the community who are consuming a large volume of the RCMP members' time.
"That needs to change, because I think as the report reads, there's other areas of our community that are not getting the essential service from the RCMP," he said. "Not by fault of theirs, but just because they're so focused on these individuals, those prolific individuals that Inspector How mentioned."
Leslie said the RCMP report itself is positive because crime is down.
"But is crime down because there's less crime being caught or is there less crime within the community? So, that's the old adage we need to figure out," he said. "With the amount of phone calls council members have been receiving, I would say that there's just some crime that is escaping through the fingers and we just don't have enough resources to address today."
