Warm weather brings spike in property crimes

Kevin Berger – Leader Staff

The return of warm weather has brought a spike in property-related crimes within the area covered by the Barrhead RCMP Detachment, as the number of thefts under $5,000 reported during the last six months is now at its second-highest level in six years.

Staff Sgt. Bob Dodds came bearing bad news to the County of Barrhead council meeting on July 2, where he shared the latest quarterly update detailing crime statistics within the detachment.

“I can’t sit here and pretend it’s anything but bad news,” he said. “Some of the numbers are up substantially.”

Dodds told councillors that a total of 539 Criminal Code offences had been reported within the detachment during the first six months of 2019, which represents a 17 per cent increase from the previous year.

The only time in the last six years when there were more Criminal Code offences reported during the first six months was in 2015, when the local RCMP tracked a total of 617 Criminal Code offences.

Under the heading of property crimes, a total of 119 thefts under $5,000 were counted during the first half of 2019,.

That was a 21 per cent increase from the previous year, when 98 thefts under $5,000 were reported during the first half of 2018.

Thefts over $5,000 has remained static from year to year at seven cases in total, while thefts of motor vehicles had dropped from 38 such cases in 2018 to 26 cases in 2019.

Possession of stolen goods increased from 15 offences in 2018 to 27 such charges in 2019. Mischief to property was also up, rising from 39 such cases in 2018 to 50 cases in 2019.

Break-and-enters had climbed from 50 such offences in 2018 to 55 such incidents in 2019. A total of four arson cases and 22 fraud cases have also been reported this year.

Dodds noted that some of these property crimes were being committed by criminals travelling from other areas, while the rest could be attributed to local individuals.

He noted that an individual from the Tiger Lily area is personally facing 20 to 25 theft-related charges.

Persons crimes like robbery, assault, sexual assault, extortion, criminal harassment and uttering threats had climbed slightly from 79 such offences during the first six months of 2018 to 93 offences in 2019 thus far. Still, the number of persons crimes were still down over the previous three years.

Criminal harassment in particular had seen a big increase, rising from 12 such offences reported during the first half of 2018 to 26 such offences reported this year.

However, the number of uttering threats charges had dropped from 16 in 2018 to eight this year, the lowest it’s been in six years.

There was also one robbery, three sexual assaults, four other sexual offences, 45 assaults, four kidnapping/hostage/abduction situations, one case of extortion and one homicide.

Dodds noted the single homicide involved a two-vehicle collision that occurred south of Barrhead along Highway 33 on April 26, which claimed the life of a Lac Ste. Anne County firefighter.

A man had been charged in connection to the April 26 collision with impaired operation of a motor vehicle causing death and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death.

There has been one other fatal collision this year: a two-vehicle collision west of Barrhead on Feb. 19, which claimed the life of a 76-year-old woman.

Dodds said the other driver in that collision — a young male who had rolled through a stop sign – had been charged under the Traffic Act of Alberta, which is why it wasn’t counted as a homicide.

He noted that RCMP generally decide upon charges in complex cases after consultation with Crown prosecutors. In that particular case, the driver had not been driving aggressively or too fast, and there was no evidence to suggest he had been distracted or impaired.

“Under those parameters, in consultation with Crown counsel, it was a Traffic Act charge,” he said.

Dodds acknowledged his last report to county councillors back in April had been considerably more positive.

“I’d like to see all these numbers dropping. We had a good winter and I was able to come here and pass on the good news. Today, not so much. And I don’t see any reason to expect things to start slowing down.”

On a semi-positive note, Dodds did point out that the total number of suspicious person/vehicle/property calls had increased from 85 such calls during the first half of 2018 to 156 such calls in 2019 thus far.

“That tells you … two things: what’s going on and the public awareness about what’s going on,” he said. “If somebody is seeing stuff go on, now they’re calling us.”

Dodds recalled how two separate reports from the public had led to the arrest of seven different suspects on June 5.

Five of the suspects were arrested after a rural resident reported an attempted copper theft, while a report of a suspicious vehicle resulted in two other individuals being arrested.

“I’ve always said that if you call us (about possible criminal activity), we might not get there in time and we might not catch them, but maybe we will. And there’s an example.”