For most third-quarter crime statistics in North Battleford, the trend is going in the right direction — down.
That is the indication from the numbers submitted Monday night to city council by the Battlefords RCMP detachment.
For the third quarter July through September 2018, calls for service stood at 4,880, down from 5,156 for the same period a year ago. For the year to date, calls for service stood at 9,997, compared to 10,430 a year ago.
Third quarter statistics show declines in most categories with the exception of business and residential break and enters. Business break and enters are up from 18 to 33 and residential break and enters are up from 63 to 78. Provincial traffic offences are also up for the quarter, from 306 to 330.
All other categories posted declines including person offences, property offences, criminal code offences, drug offences, liquor act violations and impaired driving.
For the year to date the city is seeing increases in business break and enters, from 35 to 49, and property offences from 2,139 to 2,487. There is also a slight traffic offence increase from 721 to 722.
All other categories are posting declines: person offences from 982 to 908; residential break and enters from 149 to 138; criminal code offences from 1,923 to 1,661; liquor act violations from 365 to 278; and impaired operation of a motor vehicle from 181 to 148.
Overall, S/Sgt. Darcy Woolfitt described it as an “encouraging report.”
However Woolfitt added that “given some of the activities we’re seeing right now, it may trend up in the next quarter.”
In his presentation to council, Woolfitt outlined some of the initiatives the RCMP have been doing lately. He spoke about the town hall meeting held last Wednesday in North Battleford at the Don Ross Centre. This has been one of a number of such meetings the RCMP has held in recent months. Part of the reason for holding them, Woolfitt noted, was community engagement. It also allows people to voice their concerns and provide feedback, which he saw as positive.
The meeting also allowed the RCMP to show people the scope of the detachment area they are responsible for. Woolfitt described one moment early on at that meeting, when he projected onto the screen a map of the coverage area of the Battlefords RCMP detachment.
That drew astonished reactions from those attending; one person there had reacted by asking “why isn’t this in the paper?”
“When they saw the area that we were responsible for policing, they were surprised,” said Woolfitt, “because it’s quite a vast area and we’re responsible for not only the communities, the little villages, but also the rural areas as well.”
There were also a number of questions about how the RCMP was able to respond to incidents in such a large area. Woolfitt also noted the Battlefords RCMP detachment has a “very good relationship” with the surrounding detachments who will come in and assist.”
“We are not in an island by ourselves, and we do have other detachments and other resources that assist us in delivering policing services,” said Woolfitt.
Woolfitt said there were some good points made at the meeting, and the plan is to do another one of these town hall meetings in the spring.
