First six months show downward crime trend in NB

It's news some local residents will have trouble believing, but the crime stats are down again in the city of North Battleford.

That is based on the RCMP reported statistics not only for the month of June, but for the first six months of the year.

Calls for service in June were down from 1,408 the year before to 948. For the first six months of 2014, there were 5,775 calls for service, down from 7,372 for the same period the year before.

More importantly, almost every major crime category is showing a reduction, across the board. For the first six months of 2014, person offences are down from 446 to 306, business break and enters down from 32 to 18, residential break and enters down from 58 to 54, property offences down from 1,389 to 1,078, criminal code offences down from 789 to 752, drug offences down from 165 to 75, provincial traffic offences are down from 1,259 to 714, impaired operation of a motor vehicle down from 158 to 138, and municipal bylaw offences down from 89 to 77.

Also declining were motor vehicle collisions from 154 to 100.

The only area seeing a noticeable increase is liquor act offences, up from 140 to 218, a result, according to the RCMP, of more enforcement.

The June numbers saw some major declines. Person offences dropped from 103 in June 2013 to 56 in June 2014. Also down significantly were property offences from 323 to 158, business break and enters from 13 to five, and provincial traffic offences from 210 to 97. Criminal code offences were down 166 to 145 while other areas saw more modest declines. The only increases were in liquor acts from 27 to 45, and motor vehicle collisions from 15 to 24.

Overall the report, delivered by Battlefords RCMP Insp. John Sutherland, continued the trend that goes back to last year. Sutherland also said other communities are seeing similar results.

"I checked with Regina today to see if this is standard across the province and it seems to be that it is across the province," said Sutherland. "We're seeing numbers go down. So we seem to be on the right track with some of our programs and initiatives we have on the go."

He does anticipate the numbers of calls for service will pick up in July and August.

Sutherland also noted RCMP members continue to be active in the community.

"It certainly pays dividends with the work they do with things like Boys and Girls Club, fundraising efforts for different charities and things like that."

The inspector also spoke briefly about the release of the annual Crime Severity Index numbers from Stats Can, which was due on July 23, based on numbers from 2013.

Last July's release of the 2012 Crime Severity Index numbers landed North Battleford in first place among communities across Canada for a fourth straight year - a result that prompted a furor from residents outraged at the amount of crime in the community.

Sutherland said based on his sense of the numbers he expected "we're going to come in high again, but we'll probably be down from where we were last year."

He pledged to look at those numbers and what is driving those up. Sutherland did suggest "individuals who lead a 'high-risk' lifestyle and substance abuse … lead to a lot of our calls. And it's through figuring out how to deal with those issues that we can push those numbers back down."

In general, council welcomed the report.

"We are seeing some incredible numbers, year over year decreases" said Mayor Ian Hamilton, pointing particularly to the major declines in person offences and other areas.

The mayor also was happy to see the reduction in motor vehicle collisions and believes people "are taking a little more care" than they did in the past.

Councillors also welcomed the announcement made the previous week about the addition of two new community safety officers as part of municipal enforcement.

The hope was expressed that will lead to greater visibility of law enforcement in the community. Councillor Cathy Richardson made it known she hopes the additional peace officers will mean higher foot patrol numbers, saying the 12 recorded in June "is not enough."