Property and person crimes are both up in the Town of Westlock for 2018, but only slightly.
RCMP Staff Sgt. Al Baird paid a visit to town council’s Jan. 28 meeting to share crime statistics from the last year. Among the stats, Baird noted there were 69 more property crimes like theft, break-and-enter and fraud than in 2017.
Person crimes like assault, sexual assault and harassment were also up by 19.
Much of the increase in property crimes, especially fraud files, is due to more accurate recording of phone scams, said Baird.
There have been large increases in that particular crime in the last four years, according to the statistics.
“When I came I wanted to keep track of that, so we’ll generate a file on that and get the person’s name and information,” he said.
There were exactly 44 vehicle thefts, the same as in 2017, and thefts under $5,000 were down from 212 to 167. Thefts over $5,000 also decreased from nine to three.
“I don’t have a major concern. Where in years gone past, it seemed the property crime was increasing, it seems to have hit a plateau in the area, not only in the town, but in the county.
“The town is more busy than the county, just because it is the hub I would suspect.”
As far as person crimes go, robberies were up significantly, rising from one in 2017 to nine in 2018. Baird pointed out robberies include anything where a threat of violence is involved -- that could range from the use of fists to guns.
Sexual assault files were also up from nine to 17. Charges of uttering threats and criminal harassment were also up slightly. Physical assaults however, are down slightly from 64 to 55.
“As far as what causes it, it could something financial, with the economy, but there’s nothing hard and fast to say what’s going on.”
Baird noted he also encourages members to perform more traffic stops and it shows in the numbers, which went from 209 provincial traffic offenses to 784 in just the last year. The Integrated Traffic Unit also helps buoy those numbers, he said.
“I think that also helps to keep our criminal matters down because the guys are getting into these vehicles and when they stop vehicles on traffic matters, we recover weapons and guns, so they’re out there and they’re detecting a lot of other crimes as well,” said Baird.
Part of the detachment’s annual performance plan includes keeping track of prolific offenders, which has been a success, he said.
“We’ve continued to identify prolific offenders. We work with probation to make sure we get a copy of their conditions and we check on them and make sure we’re keeping tabs. I think we’ve seen a lull, as a result of that,” said Baird.
“Some of them we’ve put away and they have jail time, others have moved out of the area because they don’t like it when police are checking on them all the time.”
Drug possession charges doubled from 12 to 24, while trafficking files remained at four.
The legalization of recreational cannabis hasn’t been as big of a problem as some suspected it may be either.
“There hasn’t been a huge upswing,” said Baird, but noted there have been some hefty fines levied when a group was caught smoking in a car.
“All four occupants received a $500 ticket for using in a vehicle. Word gets out really fast.”
