There was a major change in store Monday when the monthly Battlefords RCMP detachment report was presented to North Battleford City Council.
Insp. John Sutherland’s report was generally focused on highlighting what the force was doing to meet all the various community safety objectives. He reported on traffic initiatives held in May, presentations in the schools, the delivery of protective services and other activities.
But what was missing from Sutherland’s report were the statistics showing the crime instances and calls for service for the previous month.
In fact, Sutherland confirmed to councillors his desire to move away from reporting statistics on a monthly basis.
He told council in consultation with the city manager and others at the City, “I’d like to move away from the monthly reporting of statistics.”
It is a small jurisdiction, Sutherland said, and the numbers changed so much, that “we weren’t learning as much and it wasn’t as productive as we want it. So stats will report either annually or bi-annually from now on and hopefully that will give us a much clearer picture and a better, broader picture of what’s been happening in terms of the statistics. And they are always available should you choose to want them, just give us a head’s up and we can get them for you.”
The issue with the RCMP statistical reports for some time has been the fact that small changes in the crime statistics were resulting in big swings in the percentage increases or decreases for the year in certain categories. A single instance of break and enter, could translate into a “100 per cent” increase in that category, as an example.
Still, the idea of switching to reporting “yearly” crime statistics landed with a thud for Councillor Ryan Bater.
“I’m not sure how I feel about not getting the monthly statistics,” said Bater.
“I agree that given the size of our market and especially in certain areas you could make inferences based on the data that may be an inaccurate picture of reality. So, if we’re not going to get them every month, I’d request that we get them at least quarterly, so that we could match them to the seasons, because I think there’s a seasonality to crime.”
Sutherland quickly agreed, so the expectation now is crime statistics will be provided on a quarterly basis.
In addition to the RCMP report was a request for six additional full-time regular members and two municipal clerk positions. The total cost would be $1,253,457 for the first year and $1,145,457 overall. Still, it is less than the previous requests from the RCMP for an additional 18 officers for the detachment, made in each of the previous two years.
“In the last year and a half I’ve maximized our internal efficiencies,” Sutherland explained as the reason for the request for more officers. But no decision on adding resources was made at Monday’s meeting.
