Crime within the Westlock RCMP detachment area is down significantly in the first quarter of 2011, the local top cop says, but the numbers don’t always reflect community concerns.
Staff Sgt. Bryan Clayton made presentations to both Westlock and Westlock County councils at their April 26 meetings, with numbers showing incidents in several categories are down as compared to the same time period last year.
“We can actually feel that it’s less intense than last year,” he said. “We’re down quite a bit in all sorts of categories.”
Nonetheless, Clayton said members of the community have expressed concern in several areas where the numbers themselves show improvements, such as vandalism and drug offences.
Offences against people, such as assaults, criminal harassment and threats, are down 42 per cent to 20 reported incidents so far this year.
Property offences like theft and mischief are down 23 per cent to 105 reported incidents. Drug offences are down 64 per cent to 5 reported incidents.
“I’m happy with these stats, and how they’ve come down from last year,” Clayton said.
As to what has been done differently to bring the numbers down, Clayton was reluctant to take credit, insisting it was likely a community-wide effort that had the strongest effect.
With respect to property crimes, for example, he said he believes people are simply taking better care of their possessions. He added he believes the Citizens of Patrol group has also helped immensely.
“I’ve always thought it has been crimes of opportunity,” he said. “Maybe people are getting better at taking care of their property.”
Despite the reduced numbers on some major categories, this does not necessarily mean the RCMP has not been busy.
They have begun to track some new indicators this year, Clayton said, and some of those numbers seem to indicate what officers spend a lot of their time doing.
The big one is dealing with false or abandoned 911 calls. In the first quarter of 2011, RCMP dealt with 32 such calls — about one every three days. And even if the police are able to speak to someone at the home who says there is no problem, they still go out to investigate.
“If a 911 call comes in we’re more or less bound to go check it out,” Clayton said. “We do take 911 calls pretty seriously.”
The reason for many of the calls, he added, is that kids simply play with the phone, or even that adults make the calls unintentionally.
“You’d be surprised how many people have 911 programmed into their speed dial,” he said.
In recent years, the detachment’s administrative staff has been kept especially busy dealing with criminal record checks, which are becoming more and more common.
The checks can take as little as one day or as long as several weeks, depending on whether the person shares a name or a birthday with a convicted criminal.
Although the numbers are down in several key areas, Clayton said the concerns he has heard from the community don’t necessarily reflect that.
A committee comprising officers and community members has identified five key areas of concern for residents: vandalism, speeding, police visibility in the community, crack/cocaine, and traveling criminals coming into the area.
Clayton said while he does not necessarily agree that those five areas present the biggest threat to the region, since they are the concerns identified by the community he takes them seriously.
As such, he said he would work with the members to come up with solutions to the problems.
“These are the issues that have been identified, and it’s my job, along with the corporals and members, to come up with a plan.”
With the issue of police visibility, for example, Clayton said officers would spend more time going out and proactively visiting businesses, instead of just arriving when complaints are made.
With respect to vandalism, he said it is an ongoing problem and although it is a “relatively minor” problem here, enforcement continues.
With respect to traveling criminals — people who come into the community from elsewhere to commit crimes — Clayton said the members would do what they can to monitor them.
“We want to see if we can keep track of some of these people, and see what they’re up to,” he said.
