Battleford is still a safe community.
That was the message from Staff Sgt. Darcy Woolfitt of Battlefords RCMP detachment in the wake of the homicide incident on 26th Street in Battleford last week.
Woolfitt was on hand presenting the third-quarter statistics for the town of Battleford on Oct. 22, which showed small increases in individual categories.
But Mayor Ames Leslie and members of council clearly had the homicide incident on their minds.
The incident has prompted a flood of rumors, speculation and gossip among people within the community about what might have transpired. Leslie relayed the concerns he had been hearing about the incident.
“It’s been decades since we’ve had this type of incident happening in our community,” Leslie said. “There’s a little bit of feeling of uncertainty, or feeling of reduction in our safety on our streets.”
Leslie said people wanted to know “can I go for a walk to the corner store without having to look across my back?”
On the incident itself, Woolfitt said it was an active investigation and he could not talk about that. Major Crimes Unit North is managing that investigation and “I have full confidence in their abilities,” said Woolfitt.
As far as the community goes, “we live in a safe community,” Woolfitt said.
“We are experiencing issues with certain groups within our communities that are causing some issues. Those issues … revolve around issues within those groups so to speak. I know that’s kind of vague, but we do live in a very safe community. So I want to reassure people it’s safe to go outside, it’s safe to go for walks. I know I’ve gotten quite a number of questions about that over the last week and any time there is a homicide in the community, it shakes the community. It shakes everybody’s sense of security. So, that’s what I can speak to and again as the investigation goes forward the Major Crimes team will have further media releases when they are prepared.”
As for the statistical report itself, which was prepared and submitted by Battlefords RCMP Inspector Tom Beck, the main portion of it focused on the third-quarter RCMP statistical report for the town. The report showed some upticks in a number of individual categories.
For the year up to Sept. 30, Battleford is seeing an increase in persons offences from 67 to 83, an increase in break and enters to business from six to eight, residential break and enters up from 10 to 24, and other break and enters down from nine to five. Property offences are up from 213 to 229, while criminal code offences are up from 73 to 86. Drug offences were down from 14 to three, traffic collisions were down 25 to nine, provincial traffic offences are down from 88 to 53, impaired operation of a motor vehicle offences are down from 22 to 15, liquor related offences are down from 16 to seven and municipal bylaw offences are down from 11 to eight.
He said the decline in provincial traffic offenses related directly to enforcement initiatives that the RCMP had not been able to do due to an increased calls for service in the third quarter. Woolfitt expected numbers would pick up in the fourth quarter, as they had traffic plans in place focusing on impaired driving and distracting driving.
Of the total calls for service in the entire Battlefords RCMP detachment, the Battleford numbers amounted to six per cent of the total calls for service in the third quarter, and five per cent for the year to date.
The report presented by Woolfitt also highlighted a number of initiatives underway at the detachment.
Among them:
The detachment held an Annual Performance Planning Luncheon March 1 at which time a number of objective and priorities were identified: Enhanced Road Safety – Impaired Operations (Drugs and Alcohol), Crime Reduction, and Crime Reduction/Education/Awareness/Relationships.
On crime reduction and efforts to reduce the community’s Crime Severity Index number, two initiatives are ongoing, Pro-Active Enforcement and Prolific Offender Enforcement.
Together, these include high visibility patrols, the tracking of chronic offenders, dealing with gang related crimes, and running a warrant apprehension team to locate those with outstanding warrants. RCMP executed 90 outstanding warrants and arrested over 75 offenders; as well the RCMP conducted 565 curfew checks resulting in 134 breaches by people not abiding by their conditions.
Woolfitt noted that the intention is to continue with these projects to make sure prolific offenders are abiding by their conditions or have accommodations suitable to their needs.
Also highlighted by Woolfitt was the work of the Police and Crisis Team (PACT) of mental health professionals and RCMP members, providing first response to persons suffering mental health/addictions crisis situations.
From the start of the fiscal year April 1 to the end of September, there have been 159 calls for service or incidents where PACT has been involved, for an average of 26.5 calls per month.
A major reduction was noted in ER wait times: prior to PACT in a six-month period, members would have been a monthly average of 119.25 hours spent in the ER. Since PACT was implemented, members have spent on average 10.08 hours per month in the ER, resulting in a massive time savings for the force.
“The social workers know these people and they are able to intervene right away to deal with whatever the crisis is,” said Woolfitt, instead of “members having to arrest them under the Mental Health Act.”
He said it has “streamlined our process and it’s saved us a lot of time having members tied up at the hospital waiting to have a client looked at by a doctor.”
In some instances, it meant they did not have to take these individuals into custody and the mental health workers could de-escalate the situation and provide meaningful support.
Woolfitt added PACT was working well, and that the RCMP had a “fantastic” working relationship with Battlefords Union Hospital.
