Drops in cocaine trafficking, failure to stop or remain, and in discharging firearms with intent all contributed to the drop in the Crime Severity Index numbers for North Battleford from a year ago.
Unfortunately, increases in murders, attempted murders, using a firearm and pointing a firearm offences all led to a rise in the Violent Crime Severity Index.
All of it means North Battleford ends up first in Canada among communities of 10,000 or greater population on both crime severity indexes for 2013 - a double whammy for the city compared to a year ago.
According to numbers provided by Statistics Canada Wednesday, the CSI score was 323.88, down from 352.39 a year ago. Meanwhile, North Battleford's Violent Crime Severity Index score of 293.84 moved it into first place, a jump of two places from the year before when North Battleford was third in that category behind Thompson, Manitoba.
The city's non-violent Crime Severity Index score was down to 334.13 - again the highest in the country.
Statistics Canada noted several crime categories saw declines that led to the overall drop in the CSI for North Battleford: cocaine - trafficking was down from 142 to 69; failure to stop or remain fell from 144 to 29; discharge firearm with intent fell from 6 to 0; other Controlled Drugs and Substances Act - trafficking fell from 42 to 11; and assault - level 2 - weapon/bodily harm dropped from 131 to 109.
Unfortunately, the five violations contributing to the Violent Crime Severity Index were: murder, up from zero to one; attempted murder, up from zero to two; using a firearm or imitation of a firearm in commission of an offence, up from zero to five; pointing a firearm, up from two to eight; and invitation to sexual touching, up from zero to two.
The weights associated with these crimes in the Violent Crime Severity Index are significant. Murder is weighted at 7554.94, attempted murder at 1733.14, and the others at 322.18, 209.78 and 380.81 respectively.
Multiplying those weights with the numbers of incidents in each category, then adding it up and dividing it by the population makes up the final crime severity score for the community.
The top five violations that contributed to the decrease in the Non-Violent CSI for 2013 were, again, cocaine trafficking, failure to stop or remain, Other Controlled Drugs and Substances Act - trafficking, theft $5,000 or under (down from 397 to 349) and cannabis - trafficking (down from 93 to 64).
Overall, the downward trend at least softens the blow of finishing first again in the CSI.
"You're never happy being number one, but I'm really happy with the fact that numbers are down," said Battlefords RCMP detachment Insp. John Sutherland.
He is also happy that in his monthly reports to council, crime numbers have been going down for the first six months of 2014.
"Checking with Regina, they're going down at a little faster rate than the rest of the province so that makes me happy."
In speaking to the News-Optimist Thursday, Sutherland expressed similar sentiments to what he told council last Monday, pointing to "high-risk" lifestyles of a small group of people as a driver behind the CSI numbers for 2013.
The CSI numbers "are really driven up by a small segment of the population that lives a high-risk lifestyle often associated with substance abuse," said Sutherland. "We see that when we look at the fact that the numbers are driven up by crimes such as mischief."
To address those things there is the Serious Violent Offender Reduction Unit as well as a program in place "where we do pay attention to those folks" who may be driving those numbers.
As for the top five categories that drove up the Violent Crime Severity Index in 2013, Sutherland noted that there was one murder in 2013 compared to none the year before.
"Because we are a smaller city, a small change in statistics or a small change in numbers of recurring events can lead to a big change in the Crime Severity Index."
He also cited the hire of two new Community Safety Officers by the city July 17 for its municipal bylaw enforcement, something designed to free up RCMP police officers for more serious offences. Sutherland also pointed to development of a stabilization shelter to address the issue of public intoxication and other social needs, as well as the hiring of a new community safety coordinator for a six-month term to look into gaps that need to be filled.
Sutherland also pointed to the active role of RCMP officers in the community itself. He pointed to officers getting involved in the Boys and Girls Club and in organized sports such as soccer in the community. He sees that as paying dividends within the community itself.
"The amount of work by RCMP members both on duty and off duty is phenomenal," said Sutherland. "The amount of extra work that's done above and beyond by the members of this detachment, in terms of voluntary overtime in the community, is incredible. They put their heart and soul into policing this town."
