It was another mixed bag as far as the July crime numbers in North Battleford, with crimes against the person recording a major spike while most other categories saw declines.
In the report submitted by RCMP staff sergeant Phil Wilson to Monday's city council meeting, person offences were up in July to 65 compared to 47 last year. For the year, they are up from 393 to 553 through the first seven months of the year.
Also up in July were provincial traffic offences from 125 to 151, drug offences from 6 to 8, and business break and enters from 2 to 5.
Most other categories in the city, however, showed declines for the month, including in the category of residential break and enters.
Those were down from 47 in July of last year to 15 last month - still a high number, but another sign that North Battleford RCMP seem to be getting a handle on the break and enter situation in the city. Crime statistics have seen spikes in residential break and enters for much of the past year.
There were also declines in July in property offences from 301 to 224, and criminal code offences from 172 to 151. Liquor act offences were down from 45 to 31, motor vehicle collisions down from 22 to 15, and impaired operation of a motor vehicle down from 25 to 18. There were 32 municipal bylaw offences in July compared to 37 the previous year.
Calls for assistance were up to 78 from 52 the previous July, and false alarms were up in July from 78 to 118.
The spike in false alarms raised the eyebrows of councillors at past meetings. Wilson stated in his report that a log of false alarm statistics for July was delivered to city manager Jim Toye for review.
In total, calls for service were down slightly for the month from 1339 to 1291. They are up for the year, however, to 8579 from 8539.
Crime remains up for the year in the major categories, though: up 40 percent in person offences, 147 percent in business break and enters, up 5 percent in residential break and enters, up 19 percent in property offences, up 3 percent in criminal code offences and up 45 percent in drug offences.
A number of crime activities of interest from the month of July were highlighted in Wilson's report.
Those include a July 2 stabbing of a youth at a residence, which resulted in another male youth being charged with aggravated assault, assault with a weapon and three breach of probation counts.
There was also an arrest following a July 13th argument between a male and female at a residence, where a male was found with a stab wound to the calf and the female suffered a head injury. Both were arrested and treated in hospital, with the male charged with assault and the female charged with assault with a weapon.
As well, Battlefords RCMP charged an adult male individual with criminal harassment following a July 14 complaint of disturbing letters being left by an unknown subject on the vehicle of a female youth at work. And on July 30 an adult male was charged with sexual assault following a call to police from the alleged victim, who was located and taken for treatment to Battlefords Union Hospital.
