A grand total of six individuals are responsible for 21 per cent of criminal activity in North Battleford.
Community Safety Co-ordinator Herb Sutton presented that startling statistic to North Battleford city council Monday during his monthly report.
Sutton said, the statistic was revealed during analysis of data from the beginning of 2012 and July 31, 2015.
“As I thought more about that I couldn’t help thinking that really that’s not very many people,” said Sutton.
“I can’t help but think that if you were only talking about six individuals, you should be able to gather professionals together and address some of the issues they are facing that are keeping them involved in criminal activity.”
Sutton said he brought this information to Mental Health and Addictions and said they will start focusing on the individual people and try to address some of the factors that keep them involved in crime.
He added that having a data analyst on hand to do this work on a full- or part-time basis would be helpful.
In addition, RCMP detachment S/Sgt. Darcy Woolfitt provided the RCMP policing report for the month and it was during that presentation that the whole idea of a youth curfew was brought up.
Youth curfews have been discussed at council meetings before, and councillors have acknowledged local residents have come forward on that issue.
Monday, Councillor Kelli Hawtin raised the issue again in response to news La Ronge is now enforcing a youth curfew bylaw that was on the books.
“Would that help with some of the youth crime in the community?” Hawtin asked.
Woolfitt noted a curfew is “a parenting issue,” but added, “I don’t know if a youth curfew would serve our community well.” He did say it was a “good topic for us to discuss and probably look into it a little bit further,” but added he didn’t know if it was a road the community wanted to travel down right now.
Councillors seemed inclined towards a wait-and-see approach to the curfew issue. One suggestion from Councillor Ray Fox was perhaps looking at what La Ronge’s experience was for “a three-month period or something like that, as they’re going through this process,” and probably learn from that and bring it back in a few months.
