Town sees collisions up, property offences down in police report

Motor vehicle collisions increased to 12 for the period in 2018, double the 2017 count of six for the same time.

For provincial traffic offences, numbers increased to 24 in 2018, compared to 16 in 2017.

The mayor said the town saw a greater police presence in the community lately so “it doesn’t surprise me that more people have been pulled over.”

Impaired driving reports increased to five in 2018 for the period, from four in 2017.

“It would be nice to see a little more consistency of members to control some speeding and stop sign violations, especially in the school zones as well,” said Leslie. “But statistically it is showing a trend that crime is going down in the Town of Battleford.”

Drug offences saw a slight increase, going from one in 2017 to three in 2018.

False alarms increased noticeably, to 39 in 2018 from 16 in 2017.

RCMP Insp. John Sutherland said false alarm reports are “always a nuisance” for police response.

“Really, it’s about educating the homeowner, making them aware of the issues,” he said.

On a positive note, there were decreases in property crime offences, from 51 in 2017 for the period, to 41 in 2018. There was only one report of a break and enter to a business in 2018 for the period, compared to two in 2017. For residential break ins the number decreased to three in 2018 compared to eight last year. Crimes against persons decreased from 29 in 2017 to 19 this year. Criminal code offences also dropped from 23 in 2017 to 12 in 2018.

Looking at a three-year comparison for the first quarter, the RCMP report the town property crime numbers reduced by about half when comparing 2016 to 2018. Residential break and enters dropped by about two-thirds compared to 2016. Break and enters to businesses declined by more than 50 per cent.

Criminal code offences in 2018 have dropped by two-thirds since 2016 and saw about a 50 per cent decline from 2017.

On the other hand, motor vehicle collisions significantly increased compared to 2016, and were up by 50 per cent in 2018 compared to 2017. Provincial traffic offences roughly tripled since 2016 and were up by one-third since 2017.

When comparing the yearly stats for 2017 and 2016, police report the town saw a decrease in total calls at 1,175 in 2017, compared to 1,201 in 2016. There were decreases in property crime as well as traffic offences in 2017, and increases in crimes against persons, drug offences, and non-offence codes mainly.

Battlefords RCMP Insp. John Sutherland when he presented the report to council said police plan to concentrate on dealing with the small percentage of people who are chronic offenders to help combat crime in the Battlefords.

“That’s a focus were going to move towards this year,” he said.

Sutherland said for about four weeks leading into March the RCMP provincial crime suppression team was working in the City of North Battleford focusing on priority offenders, which had a positive impact in tackling crime in the community.

He said the city has provided the RCMP funding for an RCMP suppression team that’s expected to start this fall.

“We’re going to look at the changes we can make and where our numbers occur there,” Sutherland said to town council. “We hope we will see the influence over on this side (in the town of Battleford) as well.”

angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow

by Angela Brown

Town sees collisions up, property offences down in police report

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