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Sgt. Gerry Smith of the Cranbrook RCMP detachment delivered the crime statistics from the last quarter of 2009 to City Council at Monday's regular meeting and provided some figures for the whole of 2009.
In the fourth quarter of 2009, between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, the local detachment received 2,001 calls for service. The total calls for service in 2009 were 8,178, compared to 9,817 in 2008. Last year 1,198 prisoners were housed in the Cranbrook detachment compared to 1,194 prisoners in 2008.
In the fourth quarter of 2009 there were 111 Person Offences, such as assaults, sexual assaults, assault with a weapon, robbery, threats and criminal harassment, compared to 110 in the fourth quarter of 2008. Total number of Person Offences in 2009 was 489, which is up 8.4 per cent from 451 in 2008.
Between October and December 2009 there were 289 Property Related offences such as break, enter and theft, mischief to property, thefts and thefts from vehicles. Throughout 2009 there were 1,216 total property related offences, which is down 3.2 per cent from the 1,256 in 2008. Of those property related offences, 35 were break, enter and thefts (seven residential, 26 commercial and two other) and 100 were mischief to property.
Other Criminal Code offences were down in the fourth quarter of 2009 compared to the year previous. There were 108 in 2009 compared to 205 in 2008. Other Criminal Code offences consist of cause a disturbance, public mischief, breach/bail violations, firearms offences, obstruction of a police officer and counterfeit currency. In 2009 there was a total of 548 other Criminal Code offences, compared to 633 in 2008.
Smith said there is a correlation between the reduction of the other Criminal Code offences and the detachment's crime reduction program, which has RCMP members focusing on compliance with conditions imposed by a Court Order that have resulted from a sentence upon conviction or conditional release upon being charged. Police officers know the people who have bail conditions and so can more easily spot those people when they are breaching the conditions. In 2008 there were 98 breaches and in 2009 there were 138.
There were 29 Federal (drug) files in the fourth quarter of 2009 and 26 in 2008. In total there were 147 drug files in 2009, down by 15 per cent from 173 in 2008.
Between October and December 2009 20 people were charged with impaired driving related offences, compared to 12 in 2008. The RCMP issued 38 24-hour suspensions in the fourth quarter of 2009, compared to 46 issued in 2008.
Seatbelt violations were way up in the fourth quarter of 2009 as 14 were issued, compared to three for the same period in 2008. The total number of seatbelt violations issued in 2009 was 46, compared to 31 in 2008.
There were no fatal car crashes in the Cranbrook Detachment area in the fourth quarter of 2009 but there were 28 injury crashes, up from 23 last year.
In 2009 the Cranbrook RCMP received 589 false alarm calls inside the city, versus 812 in 2008. That's a reduction of 223 false alarm calls or 27.5 per cent. Under the False Alarm Bylaw 255 submissions were forwarded to the bylaw officer in 2009 for the billing of commercial businesses for attended false alarms. There were eight false alarm appeals received and three were upheld for payment of the bill and five were dismissed for rulings such as a wild bird in the building, alarm was actually a fire alarm and the purchase by businesses of better systems.
Cranbrook Detachment members and the General Investigation Section have been involved in a number of serious investigations in the fourth quarter of 2009. They include the investigations of break and enter and thefts, cocaine trafficking, marijuana grow operations, execution of search warrants, sex assaults, sudden deaths and a shooting.
Restorative Justice in Cranbrook received 57 files in 2009, which involved 72 individuals. Two of those referrals came from Crown Council. Sixteen referrals were made in the fourth quarter of 2009. In 2008 46 referrals were received in total. They anticipate the number to rise in 2010.
