By Liam Verster

Police Stats

RCMP presents third quarter stats to County Council

Nov 19, 2019 | 2:53 PM

RCMP representatives attended the County of Grande Prairie Council Meeting on Monday, November 18, to provide an enhanced RCMP policing report for the third quarter of 2019.

At the meeting, Grande Prairie RCMP Sergeant Neal Fraser highlighted some of the good work the RCMP has done, and the staffing challenges they face due to injuries to a few officers. He also presented crime statistics from the city to Council, which Fraser says are fairly flat, with a slight decrease.

“From 2018 to this year, we’re down 36 percent in our persons crime, which are violent offenses, assaults, uttering threats, things of that nature. With our property crimes, globally we’re up 11 percent. One of the big factors feeding that has been some prolific mail thieves. So we’ve had mailboxes in the city and in the rural area struck by thieves more frequently than has been in the case in the last couple years. Vehicle thefts, specifically, have historically been quite a problem for us here in the Grande Prairie area. This year we are slightly down, I think we’re down 4 percent year to date relative to last year.”

The Beaverlodge RCMP detachment also presented their stats, and Sergeant Ash Brown, the Commanding Officer, says their stats show both spikes and dips.

“So for us, persons crimes in this third quarter went down a little bit, I want to say in the twenties, 20 percentile. ame with property thefts, they went down in the 20 percentile. Missing persons spiked really high for some reason, our failed to comply with conditions, and breaches all went up. That’s probably because of our proactive work with our repeat offenders.”

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Brown says his detachment is focusing on repeat offenders, crime reduction as a whole, including crime prevention through environmental design, habitual offenders, intelligence gathering and sharing information.

Brown says they are also making sure they have a presence at the schools, as reaching out to youth is part of the RCMP’s national strategy.

Superintendent Peace Officer and Manager of Regional Enforcement, Stuart Rempel, says traffic violations also continue to plague the region.

“Violations are on the rise tremendously. Our statistics are at a 42 year high this year, and that’s from everything from commercial vehicle safety violations on through to high speeds. So it’s been a real challenge for us to keep up on top of that.”

He says drivers should slow down, give themselves a few extra minutes of travel time, and avoid risky behaviours. He adds that commercial vehicle drivers should also take extra precautions. He says the Humboldt Broncos crash should be a real eye opener for commercial drivers, saying it’s not worth the money to drive dangerously and put lives at risk. He adds that commercial drivers also need to make sure loads are secured, training and certificates are up to date, and that all the safety measures are in place for brakes, equipment, and dangerous goods.

While the RCMP develops strategies to lower these stats in the fourth quarter of 2019, other projects are also in the works.

The D.A.R.E. program, which is designed to educate children on the dangers of drug use, has been dropped by the RCMP across the country. Fraser says while they wait for a permanent program to replace it, local officers will continue to maintain a presence at the schools and engage with youth in positive ways, to share appropriate information on drug use, though it won’t be in the context of D.A.R.E.. Brown agrees, saying they are delegating officers into schools to provide presentations and learning opportunities on everything from bullying to drug use.

Brown says having a police presence at schools not only provides a feeling of security and education, it can also inspire the next generation into pursuing a career in law enforcement.

Rempel says a new policing initiative launched just a few weeks ago will see sheriffs, conservation, and transport officers responding to 911 calls to help the RCMP deal with some non-priority incidents.

He adds the County and City of Grande Prairie, along with Okotoks, are also part of a new pilot policing project revolving around the encrypted Alberta First Responders Radio Communications System (AFRRCS). Peace Officers were cut off from the system when it first came out, but the new project would see them get into the system and be able to communicate with the RCMP.

The County provides funds for six enhanced positions to the RCMP. Of those six, one is embedded in the Grande Prairie detachment’s crime reduction unit, and one works in the drug section. The remaining four are housed at the County Emergency Services building, along with the County Enforcement and County Firefighters, and they primarily work as traffic detail, school liaisons , special events policing, and back country patrols. Fraser says he doesn’t expect the County to stop providing the funds for these officers anytime in the future.