WESTLOCK – While Criminal Code files ranging from assaults to break and enters are trending down slightly for the first three months of 2023 compared to the year previous, provincial traffic offences have skyrocketed by a whopping 1,627 per cent.
At their May 23 meeting, Town of Westlock councillors voted 6-0 (Coun. Murtaza Jamaly was absent) to accept the quarterly Westlock RCMP report submitted by acting detachment commander Cpl. Riley Sutherland — Sutherland did not attend the meeting.
For the months January to March 2023, all Criminal Code case files sit at 191 compared to 202 the year previously and is the second lowest on record in the last five years, behind only 2021 when 163 were recorded. Person crimes, like robbery and uttering threats, stand at 41 compared to 48 in 2022, while property crimes, which include possession of stolen goods and theft over and under $5,000, stand at 124 compared to 127 in 2022. ‘Other’ Criminal Code offences, like distributing the peace, sit at 26 for 2023, compared to 27 the year prior.
But the number that jumps off the page is ‘total provincial traffic’ which sits at 639 for January to March 2023, a number that easily eclipses the 37 files recorded in 2022 and is greater than the 212 files recorded in the years 2019-2022 combined. Meanwhile, Criminal Code traffic files is up slightly, from two in 2022, compared to five this year, while motor-vehicle collisions are down slightly to 26 from 30 in 2022.
In a May 26 follow-up interview, Sutherland agreed that the number was a “huge increase” and said the Alberta RCMP Traffic – Westlock Unit, which is based in Westlock and patrols the highways locally as well as Barrhead, Wabasca and Slave Lake, has broadened its focus beyond “high-speed tickets” and are looking for “more varied infractions.”
“And they also do enforcement within the town because we have the highways that run through it. So, if they’re seeing things like window tint, or a headlight out, they’re making those stops,” said Sutherland.
She also said that as the local junior officers within the detachment gain more experience, “they’re seeing that traffic infractions often lead to further investigations.”
Case in point, Sutherland said that around 2 p.m., May 21, an officer patrolling 100th Avenue recognized a driver who they knew didn’t have a valid driver’s licence.
During the investigation, they reached out to the owner of the pick-up truck who told them it had been stolen — a man in his late 20s, who police have not named, is scheduled to make his first appearance in Westlock Court of Justice July 5.
