WESTLOCK – Crime numbers continue to trend down in the Town of Westlock, with total Criminal Code files down 17 per cent to the start 2022.
At the Feb. 28 town council meeting, Westlock RCMP Staff Sgt Al Baird presented the January crime stats which show a 10-case drop to 48 in January 2022, the lowest Criminal Code case total in the past four years. Crime-wise, January 2020 was the busiest on record over the last four years when police dealt with 126 files compared to 58 in 2021 and 64 in 2019.
Breaking the stats down further, total person crimes, like robberies and assaults, sat at 11 for January, which is down two versus 2021, seven fewer than 2020 and one less than 2019. Property crimes, like break-ins and thefts, are up one over the past year, 32 versus 31, and on track with the 32 reported in 2019, but substantially lower that the 86 reported in 2020.
‘Other’ Criminal Code, which includes disturbing the peace and failure to comply/breaches, came in at five, which was down nine over 2021 — in 2020 there were 22 ‘other’ Criminal Code files and 20 in 2019.
In a follow-up interview Baird said the pre-pandemic 2020 spike, then subsequent drop off in the two years since, is a combination of a variety of factors, ranging from prolific offenders being caught, to ramped up awareness and enforcement which is outlined in the detachment’s annual performance plan.
“We’ll see what this year brings. It’s hard to say why it was so big then … all it takes is a few guys to go on a rampage. But once you catch those guys you start to see the numbers drop off,” said Baird. “When I first got here in 2018, I was always pushing to get people to call us and now that we have that going it allows us to create good crime reduction plans — in January 2020 suspicious vehicle/person calls was at 43. Following that I’d like to think that more people were being caught and the public were being more vigilant, so it’s a combination of all of those things.”
As for drug enforcement there were three trafficking files in January compared to none a year ago, while in 2020 there was also three. For all provincial acts, including the Cannabis and Mental Health acts, the detachment recorded 26 files, compared to figures of 30, 27 and 15 over the past three years respectively.
Motor-vehicle collisions rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, with nine reported compared to only three in January 2021 — in 2020 there were 22, while in 2019, eight were reported. Meanwhile total provincial traffic came in at 13, up from seven in 2021, but down compared to the 18 reported in 2020 and the high of 31 in 2019.
Finally, abandoned 911 calls dropped sharply to 17, compared to 38 in 2021, while suspicious person/vehicle calls were down 75 per cent with only four files compared to the 16 reported in 2021. False alarms were up by four files compared to 2021, while spousal abuse calls were status quo at four.
Cold start success
Baird also highlighted the recent success of Operation Cold Start, a first-time provincewide RCMP initiative aimed at preventing thefts of idling vehicles. Westlock RCMP had 68 interactions with residents during the Jan. 31 to Feb. 6 campaign and found 17 unlocked vehicles idling with keys in the ignition, while 11 were locked and left idling with keys in the ignition. In 2021, Westlock RCMP dealt with 34 vehicle thefts, which was down by two over the previous year
“The Cold Start education piece was pretty good. I actually had a police officer in my garage because we leave our garage door open when my boys go to school. It scared the liver out of me,” said Coun. Abby Keyes. “He basically told me that if he was a thief, he could have been scoping out our garage.”
