ATHABASCA/BOYLE — Crime stats are on the rise in parts of the Athabasca region with large increases for the Athabasca RCMP Detachment over last year, reaching five-year highs in several crime categories, while the Boyle RCMP Detachment is seeing dramatic decreases in a few important areas.
Athabasca detachment commander S/Sgt. Mark Hall and Boyle acting detachment commander Cpl. Gavin Bergey visited local councils recently to deliver their 2nd Quarter reports, covering July through September, with a joint delegation to Athabasca County for the Nov. 15 regular meeting, while Hall delivered a similar presentation to Athabasca town council later that evening. Village of Boyle council viewed Bergey’s report the next night at the Nov. 16 meeting.
Some stats have risen considerably in the Athabasca coverage area, said Hall, noting that property crimes specifically have increased by 113 per cent from 174 to 370, while persons crimes are up 22 per cent from 99 to 121, over the same quarter in 2021. Part of which he attributed to the detachment’s efforts to engage the public, and insistence in reporting every crime so a file can be made.
“Athabasca detachment has improved communications with the public on the importance of reporting crimes,” he said. “This improved engagement may also be a factor for the increased number of occurrences reported.”
Vehicle thefts and break and entering offenses are on the rise in particular, he noted.
The five-year trend shows vehicles thefts are at their highest, with 36 this quarter over 12 last year; theft under $5,000 is at 87, over 34 last year; and frauds sit at 44, over just 10 last year. Criminal harassment, mischief – damage to property, and uttering threats were also substantially higher, rising to five-year highs.
There were also significant increases regarding mental health calls and municipal bylaws.
Staffing is up to snuff though, Hall said, with a full on-duty staff of 15 plus a surplus member, along with four support staff.
He said he is also expecting the detachment will soon be hosting the Regional Police and Crisis Team position, where a dedicated officer works with an Alberta Health Services nurse on mental health calls, but the timeline on that is still pending.
“I haven't heard anything or updates on that position yet,” Hall said. “I'm still anticipating we're going to be getting them in the office so, we're all looking forward to actually get that position, given the fact that we're all dealing with mental health issues in our communities.”
If one of the officers has to take someone into an Edmonton hospital for mental health reasons it can take them away from the area for up to 10 hours, he noted.
Bergey told county council he hosted a town hall meeting in Wandering River in October.
“Just sort of a debrief on the summer from the initiative that we had going through the summer,” he said. "One of the things I stated was goal at the beginning in May when we hosted our initial town hall up there was that I would like to go to zero ATV collisions through the summer months.”
It was a goal they were able to meet, he said.
“I think we're all pretty proud of that in Boyle and we're going to continue on with that into the spring,” said Bergey. "I'll have another town hall prior to next summer to address some good things brought up by the residents and some of the campground owners on initiatives that we're going to push forward into next summer so we can get that statistic up because we definitely don't want to be going to any fatal ATV collisions or seriously ATV collisions such as we have in the previous three or four years.”
Bergey noted the seven-member detachment has 11 stolen vehicles resulting in charges.
“We're seeing a lot of stolen vehicles from rural properties which we've managed to recover a few nearby and then we also had a few transient folks that were stealing vehicles moving between Fort McMurray and Edmonton it seemed and we managed to recover those too,” he said. "Some really, really good work in that we've had almost $1 million in stolen property recovered just through the summer.”
Most stats appear to be falling for the Boyle detachment with persons crimes falling from 58 to 35 and property crimes maintaining the same pace as last year at 91. The only categories seeing slight increases were break and enters, up to 18 from 15, and mischief – damage to property rising from 22 to 26.
Local RCMP will also soon have another tool in their arsenal to help combat crime, as a pilot project introducing body-worn cameras to Alberta detachments gets underway in 2023 and may pave the way for all RCMP in the province to don the recording devices.
Both officers said their detachments are looking forward to using the new body cameras, with Hall saying he expects Athabasca to start using them by spring, while Bergey said Boyle may have to wait until the end of the year so the detachment can be outfitted to accommodate the camera’s digital evidence management system (DEMS).
“We're all excited because it's going to reduce the number of complaints, I think by a lot, since a lot of them are ‘he said-she said’ type situations,” said Bergey.
“We’re all looking forward to it,” Hall said.
