In presenting the quarterly crime statistics to Battleford Town Council last week, Sgt. Amber Clark said, "There's not a huge variance in anything really."
She and council members reviewed a variety of statistics, but the main focus turned out to be traffic enforcement.
"Impaired operation is an area we are targeting quite heavily," said Clark. This quarter is up from five in the same time frame last year to seven this year.
"We hope to up that number," she said.
The traffic statistics are quite significant," said Clark.
The provincial traffic offences are up from 35 in the same time last year to 53 this year, which reflects charges laid for tickets for a variety of infractions.
"The community might not be super happy about it, but it's a need," said the sergeant.
The number of people speeding on the Battlefords bridges was brought up by Councillor David George.
"It's ridiculous," he said.
Clark said, "We see a lot of people speeding over the bridges. Those bridges are responsible for a lot of accidents because of the crossover that happens between the two highways and people wanting to go to Battleford and vice versa."
She said RCMP encourage people to abide by the speed limit.
"It's set for a reason."
She noted RCMP do not set the speed limits, however.
"Police have nothing to do with the setting of speed limits," she said. "We enforce what's there."
Clark expressed concern about the number of people speeding through school zones.
"I drop my kids off every day and I see people whizzing through the school zone, so we really encourage people to slow down, really look, because kids are darting in between vehicles all of the times. One of these days," she said, "I'm really worried that one of them is going to get hit."
Councillor Shelley Boutin-Gervais said the speed of traffic coming up 2nd Avenue from 35th Street is a concern to her.
"I'm more concerned about the speeds they're going in town than across the bridge," she said.
Clark said, "I'll bring that up with guys when we are out and about doing enforcement activities, because they are always saying, 'Where's the hot spot today?'"
She went on, "Well, maybe that's going to be a hot spot one of these days, so heads up community."
Councillor George also expressed concern about bicyclists that are riding on the wrong side of the road and hoped RCMP would be able to do some education.
