Prince Albert Police are looking back at how last year’s crime is affecting this year’s priorities.
A Wednesday news conference on Prince Albert’s crime statistics revealed that reported crime jumped 11.2 per cent from 2014 to 2015.
The numbers may not lie but Police Chief Troy Cooper says taken in context, it’s not as bad as it sounds.
Cooper says one category in particular – informational offences – saw a 15 per cent jump.
“That makes it sounds like maybe there’s some crime occurring there but I have a list of what’s in there. Informational offences are things like missing persons, the report impaired driver program, so we count how many people report that, sick prisoners,” he said.
Cooper says 2015 was a statistical anomaly because of the thousands of northern residents who stayed in Prince Albert in July due to the wildfire evacuations. Last year, police responded to 17 per cent more calls in July.
“You can imagine if you’re displaced, not just displaced from your community but displaced from all of your social supports so if you’re back home and your child is missing for an hour you’re not that worried. If you’re moving to the city and you’re living in a hotel and you don’t know where your child is, you phone police,” he said.
Cooper points to five years’ worth of crime stats showing that calls to police consistently drop in the winter and drive up in the summer. He said effective policing needs to take into account long-term trends, not just 2015.
“The fires in the north, evacuees, really made it difficult to analyze 2015. You have to look at really long term trends if you’re gonna see really how healthy we are,” he said.
If there are fires again this year, they’ll take some lessons from last year to try to mitigate crime. But it’s a tough balancing act when there’s a limit on how many officers are available.
“July and August are our busiest months,” Cooper said. “Our staff are stressed to the maximum in July and August as far as call volumes that just happens to be when evacuations will occur.”
Anomalies aside, the crime statistics still reveal some important trends. Robbery increased in Prince Albert by 34 per cent in 2015, with 37 more thefts than 2014.
“This both represents an increase in addictions-related crime, primarily drug addiction, and an increase in youth demographic,” Cooper said.
In 2015, Cooper says additions fueled many crimes for people who were seeking quick money with vehicle thefts and robberies.
Cooper says crystal meth is a serious issue across the province. Last year 28 per cent of their drug seizures were meth and so far in 2016 that percentage has jumped about eight per cent.
“We’re challenged, I guess, by drugs related to poverty so crystal meth is the perfect fit for that. It’s a cheap drug and it’s long lasting so the sex trade and street level drug users are moving towards that drug,” he said.
Overall, Cooper says he’d consider Prince Albert to be a healthy one when compared to other cities with similar social issues, but acknowledges those issues lead to crime.
He says the Police Service is seeing direct benefits from an alcohol strategy, identifying crime “hot spots” at the recommendation of the Board of Police Commissioners, and combined efforts with the City of Prince Albert.