Alcohol-related offences and concern about vehicle thefts and shoplifting made up a sizable portion of the crime statistics presented by Battlefords RCMP detachment at council Monday.
The numbers, presented by S/Sgt. Darcy Woolfitt, showed mostly consistent numbers compared to the year before, although a few increases were seen in some categories.
Through September, person offences were up slightly for the year to date from 943 to 949, business break and enters were up to 54 from 36, residential break and enters were up to 129 from 106, property offences dropped from 2,397 to 2,393, criminal code offences were up from 1,579 to 1,876, drug offences dropped from 139 to 134, impaired operation of a motor vehicle was up from 227 to 233, and Liquor Act offences went up from 390 to 615.
Overall, calls for service were up for the year from 10,181 to 10,547.
According to Woolfitt, a good number of the criminal code offences were due to more arrests of intoxicated persons. As well, Liquor Act offences were up due to more persons being arrested in the downtown area and “trying to move them along into different services,” Woolfitt said.
But a major concern was in the property categories. Woolfitt noted that over the last year the police have noticed an increase in the theft of vehicles and trucks in the city.
Any time that happens, Woolfitt said, he usually has a conversation with the city manager about it. Most of the time, the cause is due to keys being left in the vehicle, he said.
“No matter how much we tell people to not leave keys in the vehicle and not leave valuables in the vehicle, and to secure their property, more often than not, people are busy. They get home, they probably have lots of things on the go and they forget to do these things,” said Woolfitt.
He urged the general public to pay attention to locking their vehicles, to not leave keys or valuables in their vehicles, securing their keys in the residence and to lock their homes at night.
“If everybody did these, probably these statistics would go down fairly quickly,” Woolfitt said.
Another area of concern was increases in thefts from shoplifting, so that was something else they would have to pay attention to, he said.
With the slowdown in the economy, Woolfitt said, with people financially strapped, people “would tend to do things they would not normally do” if they were gainfully employed or had a steady income.
