First quarter crime stats are down on average from the last year, according to S/Sgt Barry Graham, who delivered a report to council on Monday evening.
One of the biggest changes was a 23 per cent reduction in property offences, specifically decreases in break and enters and thefts, which was down by 33 and 36 per cent, respectively.
Other criminal behaviour, such as causing a disturbance, firearms offences and public mischief, were down by 16 per cnet.
Drug offences are down by 26 per cent, with six less files than the first quarter from last year, while clearance rates hovered at just under 50 per cent.
Clearance rates for other criminal files is up by 10 per cent, with increases in both person and property files.
Drinking and driving offences are also down, which touched off the usual discussion about interpreting impaired driving statistics. S/Sgt. Graham noted the importance and effectiveness of RCMP visibility on the roads to boost enforcement, but just because the stats show a decrease in drinking and driving, it doesn’t mean that it’s changing the behaviour.
Upon questioning from council, Graham also noted that the federal government’s legalization of marijuana hasn’t really impacted local policing resources or budgeting.
In this year’s first quarter, Cranbrook RCMP responded to 1,436 calls for service within the city and 412 in the rural areas. The city calls are down by a few dozen, but the rural calls were slightly up by roughly the same amount.
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