ATHABASCA — Reducing substance abuse and effective communication are the top priorities for both the Athabasca and Boyle RCMP detachments.
At the Sept. 28 regular Athabasca County council meeting, detachment commander for Athabasca, S/Sgt. Mark Hall, and interim Boyle detachment commander Cpl. Gavin Bergey, gave reports regarding crime statistics in the greater Athabasca area and what RCMP members are focusing on in the next quarter.
“Property crime within the Athabasca area has always been an issue and something that I want to focus on,” Hall said. “Where drugs are the issue, people are using that as a mechanism to go out ... selling stolen equipment, especially ATVs, vehicles, things like that, in order to supplement the drug habit.”
He noted public engagement is crucial to deciding on what areas need to be focused on.
“A big part of the Alberta RCMP is making sure we’re going to town halls, communicating with everyone, not just councils, but everyone from the counties and communities that we police,” he said. “That way we will support what their priorities are, not just what we assume them to be.”
Hall said there are two members in the Athabasca detachment trained in assessing private and commercial properties to determine any weaknesses thieves could exploit.
“One of my members did a presentation to a town hall that we did and went through a bunch of the checklist with the community,” said Hall. “It was well received, there was a lot of good feedback from community members on being able to give them some tools to be less of a victim. It's not going to be 100 per cent but it does give somebody a chance to protect their property.”
Hall said the detachment is also testing a new program with one member who only assists on calls for service, but otherwise is focused on crime reduction including tracking prolific offenders, then went over the year-over-year crime statistics.
“On the crime statistics sheet … the only area in here that looks kind of scary is ‘Other Federal Acts,’ it’s gone up 200 per cent,” he said. “That’s generally in the north area and has to do with firearms offences.”
Total Criminal Code violations rose two per cent over the same period – April to June – from 312 to 318 and traffic offences dropped in the same period from 532 to 398. Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA) offences rose from three to seven and motor vehicle collisions fell 18 per cent to 76.
“The proactive measures Athabasca RCMP has taken to deal with areas such as drug offences, property crime and recidivism of offenders has seen a corresponding increase in the number of charges that fall under Other Criminal Code, CDSA Offences, and Other Federal Acts categories,” said Hall. “These numbers reflect a positive step toward public safety for the community.”
Bergey then took his turn in front of council, explaining one of the areas the Boyle detachment has focused on, is the ATV complaints coming out of the Wandering River area.
“There were some issues identified when I started in this position with regards to off highway vehicles in Wandering River and Breynat,” he said. "One thing was lack of police presence, so I implemented a Wandering River patrol log and the members have spent significantly more time out there through the summer.”
Bergey added the focus has been on education over ticketing and the response has been positive.
“Maybe some people just don't know if you're under 16 you can’t operate a quad,” he said. "The majority of what we saw was youth operating a quad without supervision, helmet fractions, and registration and insurance issues. So, we took an education approach; we didn't lay a lot of charges unless things were egregious, or over the top.”
He noted they are also targeting prolific offenders with “overt enforcement.”
“We're not being ‘nice’, we're parking in the driveway saying, ‘Hey, we're watching you,’” said Bergey. "Every time (they) leave, we mark in our notebooks, every time (they) come home, we'll stop (them). As the summer went on, we did see a decrease in property crime.”
Overall Criminal Code violations have dropped 15 per cent for the Boyle detachment however traffic offences rose significantly from 467 in April to June 2021 to 529 in 2022 over the same period.
CDSA offences dropped fell from four to zero and motor vehicle collisions also fell from 68 to 62.
“Boyle RCMP conducted three large scale search warrants during this quarter that resulted in the seizure of stolen vehicles, stolen property, as well as firearms and drugs,” Bergey said. “Members continue to prioritize the suppression of property crimes in our detachment area.”
