It was another discouraging month for crime fighters in the Battlefords as RCMP statistics showed an increase in person, property and other criminal code offences last month.
The October 2010 crime statistics for the Battlefords City Detachment, compiled by Staff Sgt. Phil Wilson, were presented to Monday night's municipal services meeting at City Hall. The statistics painted a grim picture, particularly when it came to person offences.
In October, 89 person offences were recorded by RCMP. That compares to 49 for the same period last year. For the year to date, 828 person offences had been recorded, up 31 per cent from the 570 recorded last year.
Property offences were up to 270 in October compared to 233 in the same month in 2009, contributing to a nine per cent increase for the year.
Criminal code offences were also up in October, to 182 from 148 in October 2009. Also up were drug offences to 19 from nine.
A total of five business break and enters were recorded, compared to two in October 2009. Residential break and enters are down compared to last October, with nine recorded compared to 11 last year.
Liquor act offences went down from 40 to 33 during the month, while provincial traffic offences are down from 211 to 160. Impaired driving offences went up in October, however, from 16 to 45.
There were 91 false alarms in October.
Overall, calls for service were actually down for the month from 1,203 to 1,168. Overall calls for service for the year to date are 12,714, compared to 12,445 for the same period last year.
October was an active month for police officers who responded to several incidents. One was a case of vandalism during the early morning hours of Oct. 24, involving occupants of a vehicle seen driving by random parked cars and smashing the vehicles with a baseball bat. Three youths were charged.
As well, two male suspects and one female youth were charged in connection to an incident on the afternoon of Oct. 28 on Winder Crescent. Two men and a young woman were seen attempting to enter a burgundy Windstar van that matched the description of a suspect vehicle involved in a theft from the liquor store. According to police, one of the male suspect attempted to hit one of the officers, while the other two attempted to flee the scene. All were later apprehended and are charged with possession of property obtained by crime, resisting a police officer and impaired care and control.
A total of 44 foot patrols and two bike patrols were recorded in October. Those statistics pleased councillor Ron Crush, who had been calling for a more visible presence by city RCMP police officers. Crush urged Wilson to see if there was a way for that program to be expanded in the coming months.
"Visibility has increased tremendously," said Crush, based on his observations in the community in the past month. "It gives some confidence to residents that we are out there patrolling."
Also discussed at the meeting was the issue of where crimes are taking place. Councillor Grace Lang wanted to know if statistics could be provided showing where the actual crime was taking place in the community. Lang said such information would be particularly helpful in determining which "hot spots" of the city the police officers could be deployed to.
"Where do we require the police officers?" Lang asked.
Staff Sgt. Wilson said crime statistics are provided by zone, but compiling more specific figures for areas such as the downtown core would be more difficult. Police would have to go through all their files, Wilson said, and that would be time consuming.
He did note there had been more focus on the downtown core in recent months in response to some high-profile incidents that took place in that area. Wilson also noted he did not think the downtown core had "the largest majority of our crime."
