The recent wave of school break-ins dominated discussion during the monthly RCMP statistics report to North Battleford city council Monday.
RCMP Sgt. Kurt Grabinsky delivered the report, during which he gave details on the extent of the incidents that impacted schools throughout the community.
He reported there were 29 separate occurrences in total and that their General Investigation Service unit and dedicated patrol units were deployed.
The RCMP identified 37 persons of interest of which 17 were young offenders while 20 others were children under 12.
As a result, Grabinsky reported eight youths were charged with 27 charges.
Grabinsky called it a "quite in-depth investigation - these things happened over a long period of time."
In response to a question from Councillor Ryan Bater about whether the break-ins had stopped, Grabinsky reported there have been no new school break-ins since June 28.
He told council the RCMP had been working very much in partnership with the schools to "try and make it stop, and it appears that it has to this point."
In addition to the school break-ins, another big issue has been the numerous break-ins into locked and unlocked vehicles, "stealing change, small items," said Grabinsky.
Grabinsky is encouraging the community to "keep the eye candy" (ie. change) out of their vehicle, to lock and put your alarm on your vehicle, and to make the vehicle look as it did when it left the dealership. "Leave it empty," he said.
Overall there were 1,168 calls for service in June 2013, down from 1,495 the previous June 2012. As far as percentages for the year to date, increases are being noticed in person offences (12 per cent), residential break and enters (23 per cent), property offences (11 per cent) and motor vehicle collisions (25 per cent), while declines were noted for business break and enters (16 per cent), Criminal Code offences (16 per cent) drug offences (30 per cent) and liquor offences (five per cent).
There were also 33 foot patrols logged during June.
