Battlefords RCMP gave a quarterly update on crime statistics to North Battleford city council Monday and those were a mixed bag, to say the least.
The report, presented to council by Sgt. Carl Dinsdale, showed crime still going up in a number of categories, something seen in the statistics dating as far back as the end of 2014.
For the first three months of 2016, crime was up in the following categories: business break and enters up from eight to 12, residential break and enters up from 25 to 43, property offences up from 574 to 651, criminal code offences up from 392 to 545, drug offences up from 42 to 46 and liquor act offences up from 98 to 147.
But there was some good news. Person offences were down from 281 to 255. There were reductions in provincial traffic offences from 313 to 228 and impaired operation of a motor vehicle from 65 to 63. Motor vehicle collisions were also reduced from 98 to 74.
Overall, Dinsdale characterized the numbers as relatively stable, but cautioned it was still too early to determine whether this is a trend.
“I don’t think it’s enough to look at right now at this point in the year and say that there’s huge issues one way or another,” he said.
The rest of Dinsdale’s report focused on a number of initiatives being brought in by the RCMP to address the crime issues. He spoke of the detachment’s efforts towards implementing intelligence-led policing – the more proactive approach towards addressing and preventing criminal activity.
This has been spoken about at council meetings before, but Dinsdale stressed a number of steps were taking place “to truly be an intelligence-led police service force for North Battleford.”
One plan is to add staff – a research assistant and an office manager — positions that would “help us not only gather intelligence but organize and connect it, and then re-feed it back to members so it could be used effectively,” said Dinsdale.
Another objective is to increase effectiveness of police service delivery overall.
“We want boots on the ground, tires on the road,” said Dinsdale. “We want police officers out there patrolling, interacting with the public and hopefully deterring crime.”
To that end, Dinsdale spoke of efforts to put an operational plan in place for the summer to deal with the usual increase in criminal activity during the summer months. It also involves planning for the various summer events happening that will need a police presence.
Other initiatives include internal times-savings measures to reduce the workload for RCMP members and allow members to be able to concentrate on policing. The force is also continuing community policing initiatives with various agencies such as the North Battleford HUB and with the City’s public safety teams and the liquor inspector to monitor the sale and consumption of liquor.
