BOYLE — Crime trends including property offences stayed on par for the Boyle area for the last months of 2024, according to Boyle RCMP, thanks in part to cold winter weather.
“It’s too cold for crime,” said Boyle Coun. Pat Ferguson during the village’s Feb. 19 regular council meeting when elected officials reviewed Q3 stats from the local detachment. “When the RCMP says freeze, they do.”
While Ferguson’s jokes garnered laughs and eye-rolls from his counterparts, Boyle RCMP detachment commander Sgt. Dennis Properzi said cold temperatures do play a part in both criminal and police activity.
“Generally, it does slow down for us a bit, obviously on the traffic side things slow down a lot more, people are cautious going out in the extreme weather elements,” said Properzi. “We are generally trying to be a bit safer, with the extreme conditions on the highways we’re trying to not become a hazard ourselves out there.”
Between October and December 2024, Boyle RCMP recorded 124 total provincial traffic files, down from 174 in 2023 and a five-year high of 456 in 2022.
Properzi said he typically advises against unnecessary travel in -30 or -40 C weather, and if unavoidable, recommends drivers be prepared for the unexpected; poor road conditions, mechanical issues, and long wait times for help.
“We try to also be cognizant that we’re also not immune to the extreme weather, so if we’re gonna be going to a very remote area on some of the calls for service, we try to triage that we’re doing it in a safe manner, we don’t want to be breaking down and not having a tow truck available.”
Another factor in the reduced traffic files is staffing at the Boyle detachment. Properzi is currently short three officers, with two hard vacancies, including a Corporal position after officer Gavin Bergey was promoted to Sergeant and transferred to Athabasca, and one soft vacancy due to paternity leave.
“Members are young in this detachment, and now they’re starting young families,” said Properzi. “It’s encouraging and stressful for us to go through some shortages, but we also know what kind of a stressful situation it is being a new parent.”
Properzi said he hopes the positions will start to be filled by springtime and noted a new recruit has been slated to the detachment with a start as early as April.
The numbers
In Q3 of 2024, Boyle RCMP recorded 16 break and enter files, an increase from the 12, 11, and 14 files in 2021, 2022, and 2023 respectively. But Properzi said an increase in the file numbers doesn’t mean an increase in property crime against the public.
“A break and enter doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a house. It could be a remote oil lease site where one of the old buildings was broken into and some of the copper wiring might be stolen or tools.
“We’ve got vulnerabilities obviously in the rural areas where we’re not patrolling as often just because of the proximity,” he said. “We’re not seeing a big increase, we’re not seeing a huge decrease, but it’s what we’re expecting.”
Vehicle theft was up slightly, with 12 files in 2024 and nine in 2023. Theft over $5,000 showed an increase as well, with nine occurrences filed in 2024 compared to three the year prior.
Rates of mischief, categorized as ‘damage to property’ and ‘other’ were higher in 2024 too, with ‘damage to property’ jumping from eight in 2023 to 20, and ‘other’ up from 5 incidents in 2023 to 13.
File types showing downward trends in the latter part of 2024 include offensive weapons, which can involve people armed with knives, hammers, axes, or anything other than a firearm, as well as failure to comply breaches, a stat Properzi credits to few individuals being released to the community with court ordered conditions.
The detachment received seven reports of fraud in Q3, one less than last year, though still high in contrast to numbers from 2020 to 2022. But Properzi said the higher number of fraud files is a positive sign and doesn’t directly correlate to the number of fraud victims in and around Boyle.
“Most of the fraud that we do is involving online, so if it’s a report of fraud, it doesn’t mean that a crime had actually (been committed). Somebody may have not been actually victimized, they’re reporting for information, which we encourage because we want that all recorded.”
