According to the latest RCMP statistics, property crime is on the rise in the Town of Westlock.
Westlock RCMP Detachment Staff Sgt. Al Baird presented his quarterly report to town council Oct. 28, noting that for the reporting period of January to September the detachment has seen a spike in theft and mischief complaints within the town boundaries.
Person crimes are up four files, property crimes 16 files and other Criminal Code files have gone up by 43, bringing the total of reported crime to 794 files, up 63 from the same time period in 2018.
“A concern that I have is that the frauds accounted for 180 of the files last year — we were encouraging people to call in and list them down so they weren’t necessarily defrauded, maybe less than one per cent was actually defrauded, but people were calling in because we encouraged them,” said Baird.
That’s what the concern is. There’s only 46 reported this year. These either have gone down or people know about the scams now so we’re not getting as many calls.”
While fraud files have gone down significantly, total property crime numbers have increased from 453 in 2018 to 469 reported for 2019. Baird’s report shows a significant increase in break and enter files (27 in 2018, up to 69 in 2019), theft under $5,000 (from 127 last year to 170 in 2019), and mischief to property (63 reported in 2018, 112 in 2019).
“With those frauds going down, those thefts and mischiefs have replaced it,” Baird told council, outlining that he is concerned with the spike in actual crime as opposed to the potential for it — people were only reporting scams in 2018, but not actually being defrauded.
In cases of reported crimes where criminals have not been apprehended, it is difficult to determine whether or not the offender is a resident. The numbers reflect crime occurring within the boundaries of the town.
“For our statistic purposes, crime reports in the county are down whereas crime reports in the town are up,” said Baird, who admitted there is a possibility that county residents do not report crimes as often.
Baird attributed part of the issue to the court system: the catch-and-release repercussions from backlogged courts put criminals back into communities.
“While the members are doing a good job in monitoring prolific offenders and offenders that are on release documents, the issue is one of release back into the community. Once we charge somebody, everything else is beyond our control.
“What we are seeing is a lot of this stuff being dealt away or withdrawn or dismissed, some of it due to lack of court time. Whatever the case is, it’s beyond our control. So we see the frustration of people in the community who are saying, ‘How come these people are back out?’ We share that frustration,” said Baird.
He emphasized that community engagement is critical to preventing property crimes in the first place: locking up vehicles, removing valuables from them, or adding camera security systems to homes.
Person-related offences have only gone up by four from last year. One homicide occurred this year for the first time in the 2016-2019 reporting period. Robbery decreased from eight files in 2018 to five this year. In this pool, the most numerous were assault files, which went up from 49 in 2018 to 61 in 2019.
Sexual assaults spiked last year at 15 (from six reported in 2016 and five in 2017), with 13 reported this year. Other sexual offences followed a similar trend (none in 2016, three in 2017, eight in 2018 and four this year), and so did uttering threats (16 in 2016, 12 in 2017, 22 in 2018 and 20 this year).
The detachment doesn’t have any financial concerns for now, despite the overtime put in by members during the homicide case from Aug. 2, and vehicles ramming police cars. The latter has driven vehicle repair costs to higher than normal levels, with at least three incidents this year, most notably on June 13 at the McDonald’s drive-thru.
One RCMP member is leaving the detachment and a new cadet from depot is set to arrive in December, likely before Christmas, added Baird.
The report was presented to council ahead of a town hall meeting on crime set for Nov. 8 at Westlock Inn from 2-5:30 p.m., organized by the Westlock detachment. In attendance will be Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock MLA Glenn van Dijken, Eastern Alberta RCMP representatives, Victim Services, and Citizens on Patrol.
