WESTLOCK –Criminal Code case stats in Westlock County for the first quarter of 2023 almost mirror the year previous, with the number of property offences, like break and enters, identical to 2022.
At Westlock County’s June 20 committee of the whole meeting, Westlock RCMP Detachment acting commander Cpl. Riley Sutherland presented the January to March 2023 crime statistics which detail the number of Criminal Code, Traffic Safety Act and municipal bylaw files they’ve handled. Ultimately, councillors voted 6-0 (Coun. Stuart Fox-Robinson was absent) to accept the report as information.
As it stands, person crimes, like assaults and robberies, sit at 27 compared to the five-year high of 32 the year prior, while slightly above the 16 recorded in both 2020 and 2021 and the 22 in 2019. Meanwhile, property offences, like thefts of motor vehicles, frauds and possession of stolen property, sit at 69 for 2023, which is identical to 2022 and only two higher than the 67 recorded in 2020 — the lowest on record is 36 in 2021, while the highest is 89 in 2019. Finally, ‘other Criminal Code’ sits at 11, two higher than 2022 and three more than 2021, while lower than the 15 and 25 recorded in 2020 and 2019 respectively.
Sutherland also highlighted “recent successes” in the Fawcett area following a handful of high-profile arrests in June and said they’ve upped enforcement and are focusing on “certain players in that area.”
“We’ve been trying to focus a lot of attention on them and have been having our members go up the Fawcett and Flatbush areas to try and curb some of the criminality that’s been going on there,” said Sutherland, noting RCMP Traffic-Westlock has also upped enforcement in that area. “They’ve been writing a lot of tickets in that area, just again to be more visible … they’re often doing evening shifts up around that north area of Westlock County.”
Beyond, total provincial traffic, ‘other traffic’ and Criminal Code traffic stand at a combined-case count of 690, compared to 635 in 2022, which are both substantially lower than the five-year high of 1,264 recorded in 2020 — in 2019 there were 599 and in 2020 637 were recorded. Municipal bylaws, which Sutherland say they handle when the county’s community peace officers are busy or off shift, sit at five compared to three the year prior — of the five in 2023, three are for contraventions of municipal traffic bylaws. Finally, there’s been 57 motor-vehicle collisions to the end of March, which is down 21 over 2022.
New Staff Sgt.?
Sutherland said she understands that a new Staff Sgt. has been chosen, but the announcement is still winding its way through the “paperwork process.” Sutherland told councillors that she’s previously worked with all three of the short-listed candidates at past postings during her RCMP career and they’re “all excellent.”
During a Feb. 22 session held in Town of Westlock council chambers, Westlock County reeve Christine Wiese and town mayor Ralph Leriger met the hopefuls as the local detachment has been without a permanent commanding officer since Dec. 16, 2022, when Staff Sgt. Al Baird, who had served in Westlock since February 2018, left to join the Parkland RCMP Detachment as one of two watch commanders.
Both Wiese and Leriger have said that they know their input won’t be the sole determining factor in who gets hired but were happy to be a part of the process — Wiese noted the ‘K’ Division higher-ups also appreciated “having the view from the municipalities because sometimes that’s missed.”
In addition, the detachment currently has “two hard vacancies” for the rural compliment which should stand at eight, while according to Sutherland’s May report to the Town of Westlock, the urban side is fully staffed with four members.
