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Calls for service up in Cold Lake detachment area

When Cold Lake RCMP S/Sgt. Scott Buchanan crunched the numbers, he determined the local detachment has responded to 700 more calls for service compared to the same time last year.
RCMP Quarterly Report
(left to right) Cold Lake RCMP Sgt. Ryan Howrish and S/Sgt. Scott Buchanan outlined the latest quarter during city council’s meeting on Tuesday.

When Cold Lake RCMP S/Sgt. Scott Buchanan crunched the numbers, he determined the local detachment has responded to 700 more calls for service compared to the same time last year.

“When I break it down into the call variety, what we’re seeing and trending is an increase in break and enters and mischief, which is interfering with someone’s property, whether that’s property damage or even, for example, someone panhandling or ending up in the lobby of a bank and impeding customers coming and going,” he outlined.

During Cold Lake council’s meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 12, Buchanan and Sgt. Ryan Howrish gave an inside look at their most recent quarter from July to September.

Officers were kept busy in the City of Cold Lake with over 1,276 calls, in addition to 315 reports in the MD of Bonnyville, 172 on Cold Lake First Nations, and 56 in the Elizabeth Métis Settlement.

Broken down, the city has seen 44 cases of assault, 36 break and enters, 349 calls for mischief, and 123 reports of theft under $5,000.

“Mischiefs are almost double,” noted Buchanan, adding in the MD they had 41 mischief files, 11 assaults, 14 break and enters, and seven theft under $5,000 complaints.

“I can’t say why that’s occurring, but (the economy) would definitely be a driver, one of the main reasons,” he stated.

Cold Lake First Nations and the Elizabeth Métis Settlement are also seeing more mischief complaints than other crime, with officers responding to 50 on the first nation and 11 on the settlement.

While Cold Lake First Nations had 21 complaints for assault, seven break and enter investigations, and nine theft under $5,000 cases, the Elizabeth Métis Settlement had files opened on two break and enter incidents and one theft under $5,000.

In their latest quarter, the Cold Lake detachment has investigated 149 persons complaints in Cold Lake, 30 in the MD, 34 on the first nation, and eight on the settlement.

“In Cold Lake, year-to-date, we’re looking at 284 investigations into persons crimes, and that’s when there’s a victim of an assault or aggravated assault… If you compare that to the MD and the settlement, as well as first nation, you will see that most of our activities… (are) in the City of Cold Lake,” Buchanan said. “If we look at property crimes, which is fairly significant, there’s 1,184 for the first six months of the year, and that in relation to the other communities, adds up to around 800 more in the city than there is in other communities combined.”

Broken down into their latest quarter, local police responded to 577 reports in city limits, 90 in the MD, 80 on the first nation, and 23 on the settlement.

“The change of drugs from cocaine to methamphetamine, that has a big impact on property crime, and we see that property crime is up as well, across the board in all communities,” explained Buchanan.

“It’s been quite busy over the summer, and heading into the fall there’s usually a bit of a lull, but it hasn’t seemed to let up this fall,” Buchanan told council.

Cold Lake has been busy when it comes to drug-related investigations with 16. The MD and Cold Lake First Nations both had four, and the settlement has only seen one to-date.

Buchanan noted, “At our detachment, we spend most of our time in the city, that’s not to say that people from other communities aren’t coming into Cold Lake and participating or contributing to crime.”

In 2018, the city agreed to fund bringing a RCMP Police Dog Services (PDS) Unit to the area, and since coming to Cold Lake, Cst. Jason Jaques and his K-9 partner Harp have been kept on their toes.

“He’s doing an awesome job. I can’t thank the city enough for funding the position,” expressed Buchanan.

In the first six months, the PDS unit has been involved in 255 files, capturing 33 accused in Cold Lake and 117 outside of the area.

“He’s always on the go,” added Buchanan.

When it comes to other RCMP members working within the four walls of the Cold Lake detachment, Buchanan detailed, “As far as the staffing levels to deal with it go, we have 17 members funded by the City of Cold Lake. That includes our dog, two General Investigation Section (GIS) positions, and 13 regular members on general duty.”

The enhanced position for the settlement and nine other general duty officers are paid for by the province.

“We work on the post program… it doesn’t matter who’s funding your position, you just respond to the calls that come in on the day that you’re working, whether it’s in the city or in the MD, first nation, or settlement,” explained Buchanan.

Buchanan compared the local statistics to those of 12 other Alberta-based detachments of roughly the same size.

In 2018, the average number of criminal code investigations per municipal officer in Cold Lake was 104.7, about 120 per cent more than the provincial average of 87, estimated Buchanan.

The area’s Crime Severity Index wasn’t available for 2018, but when comparing the previous year’s numbers, Cold Lake’s was 153, while the provincial average was 107.

“The Crime Severity Index, that’s kind of one of the unspoken issues… I call it the thickness of files, because you can have a stolen garden gnome or an aggravated assault, they’re both counted as one criminal code investigation, but the assault will take a lot more work and effort than the garden gnome,” outlined Buchanan.

Per 1,000 people, local police responded to 131.1 criminal code investigations in 2017. The provincial average was 101.7 during that same time.

“In Cold Lake, in 2018, there was one RCMP member for every 906 people. In the other communities, it’s one per 846 population,” Buchanan noted.

For the provincially-funded members, those stats were almost on-par. There were 106.7 criminal code investigations per officer in 2018 working. Other detachments had each member investigating, on-average, 96 criminal code investigations.

He continued, “It’s pretty busy days at the Cold Lake detachment. Our members are running around 120 per cent of the provincial average, but our clearance rates are better than the provincial average, which is pretty good. There’s a pretty good crew at the detachment and they work pretty hard.”

Buchanan explained the detachment’s progress on their annual performance plan.

So far this year, they’ve held 14 joint force operations including check stops and enhanced patrols.

Crime reduction has continued to be a top priority for local officers.

“That really speaks to determining who are our frequent flyers. We call them our prolific or high-priority offenders, and also identifying hot spots, or where crime is happening all of the time,” Buchanan explained. “You may have heard the term, five per cent that’s doing 90 per cent of the crime, it’s that five per cent we’re really focusing on and hopefully get ahead of the wave and reduce our calls for service.”

He added, “Our goal is to get people out of the life of crime, in jail, or on strict conditions. When they’re on conditions and not in jail we do things like curfew checks and ensure that they’re abiding by those conditions, if they don’t, then we breach them and hopefully have a little bit of a better handle on them.”

To-date, 39 people have been charged as a result of drug-related investigations.

“This year, it looks like we’re quite ahead of the game as far as drug charges go, and that’s all without exception, trafficking charges or possession for the purpose of trafficking charges,” stated Buchanan.

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