The MD of Bonnyville has a better idea of how crime looks throughout their municipality.
Bonnyville RCMP S/Sgt. Sarah Parke and Cold Lake RCMP S/Sgt. Scott Buchanan, along with Sgt. Ryan Howrish, laid out the numbers in terms of crime across the MD during their council meeting on Wednesday, April 10.
“There’s really nothing staggering. We kind of see the same trends in the (Cold Lake) area as well as ours, because ultimately, we’re kind of dealing with the same people,” expressed Parke.
For the 2018 fiscal year, the Bonnyville detachment responded to 6,129 files, 2,294 of which were within the MD.
Cold Lake officers opened 8,893 files, with just over 3,330 generated from the rural areas.
The two detachments’ jurisdictions meet near Fort Kent, so on occasion they will work together to get the job done.
Howrish explained, “Cold Lake’s boundary lines are quite close to Bonnyville, and there’s times where if they’re closer, they will attend for us and then we will carry the file afterwards. We work really closely and well with the Bonnyville detachment.”
“What takes precedence is dealing with the call, especially if someone’s health and safety is at play. We will go to the call, and when the dust settles, figure out who does the paperwork,” Parke noted.
What complaints come out on top
For Cold Lake, the top file count for 2018 is reportable collisions.
According to Howrish, those are vehicle collisions that result in damage of over $2,000.
Over the past year, Cold Lake officers have responded to 251 of these incidences.
When it comes to the Bonnyville detachment, break and enter and vehicle thefts continue to be a concern.
”They’re always on the forefront. We had 164 break and enter investigations, 102 were in the municipality, while 62 were in the MD. For theft of vehicles, we had 172, that’s cars, trucks, SUVs, off-highway vehicles, etc.,” Parke outlined.
Last year, Cold Lake’s detachment area had 94 break and enter files, which is low on the scale when compared to Athabasca who responded to over 350, Howrish noted.
“Those break and enter numbers are obviously concerning, but they’re a little bit below our neighbours,” he added.
Cold Lake is reporting a dip in vehicle thefts, which Howrish contributed to the number of Ford F350s.
“People go shopping for vehicles to steal in the city. They can look at 1,000 vehicles in half an hour rather than going into people’s driveways, that’s why there has been a difference when there have been people looking for vehicles specifically to steal,” said Howrish. “We don’t see a whole lot of them, but we’ve definitely seen a decrease in this fiscal year, and vehicle thefts are down, for sure.”
False alarms continue to be a concern
Regardless of their efforts to educate the public, false alarms continue to be high on the list of calls for local police.
“False alarms take up a pile of our time, that’s consistent whether it’s in the city, MD, or the First Nations or Indigenous communities,” detailed Howrish. “It’s not a 911 call. A false alarm could be a commercial or residential alarm. For example, there’s an intruder alarm at this business. Unfortunately with those types of calls, it’s treated as a priority. Unless we hear otherwise, we’re going to that call.”
He continued, “Obviously, when we get that alarm call we’re on alert, we’re travelling. At the Cold Lake detachment, we’re lucky because we have watch clerks. The first thing we ask them to do is look at a history because if this is the fourth time we’ve been called to that residence or company in the last month, we’re not going to turn on our lights and put the public at risk on our way to this call that likely the key holder is going to call and cancel in a short period of time.”
Howrish said in some communities where he has policed, the municipality has created a bylaw in order to prevent repeat false alarms.
For example, the first false alarm officers respond to would be an opportunity to educate the resident or business owner, any after that would result in a fine.
CAO Luc Mercier noted this could be a direction for council to consider.
“I would like to see that, because it takes a lot of manpower to go out and find out nothing is wrong,” stated Coun. Dana Swigart.
Catch and release
Officers throughout the region are noticing a pattern when it comes to criminals being released from custody.
With this in mind, they’re changing their strategies.
“We do a good job at catching bad guys, because we catch those same ones over and over. I think we’re realizing that, so we’re adjusting our practices, like focused crime reduction and doing things by that model. I think we’re showing a lot of success,” expressed Howrish. “We’re adjusting how we do business, knowing that’s our reality right now, is that catch and release.”
Buchanan said reducing crime isn’t just about locking up those committing the offences.
“The police part is focusing on the prolific or repeat offenders and focusing our intervention on those folks, but there’s more to it than just the police work, perhaps it’s getting them out of a life of crime through addictions... or perhaps it’s about identifying the youth at risk and who the up and coming prolific offenders are and intervening ahead of that. That’s something we’re working towards,” he stressed.
Getting the word out about their frustrations with the criminal justice system is up to the public and municipal leaders, Buchanan continued.
“As far as talking to judges or law makers, that’s not a police thing. It comes down to community and the leaders of the community taking a stand on what they feel is important.”
The success of their special units
Bonnyville’s General Investigation Section (GIS) hit the ground running over a year ago, and have been executing search warrants and cracking down on local drug traffickers.
Since creating the local GIS Unit, they’ve seized over 137-grams of cocaine, 530-grams of methamphetamine, 294-grams of MDMA, and 337-grams of GHB, with an approximate street value of over $104,000.
Parke noted, those stats don’t include the almost $23,000 in value of proceeds of crime.
“All of that involved 50 different people being charged, and the total number of charges laid or pending is 153,” she stated.
In May 2018, the Cold Lake RCMP welcomed their Police Dog Services Unit, which has kept busy responding to 189 calls for service, capturing 62 suspects.
Their staffing
Although on paper both detachments show their running at full-strength, that’s not necessarily the truth.
“Unfortunately, the reality is, we have some what they call soft vacancies. That’s a vacancy where there’s a person dedicated to that position, but they don’t work for whatever reason,” Parke explained. “As long as that person on paper is filling that position, they won’t give us a new body to be boots on the ground.”
She added, “We’ve had a barrage of long-term health issues, sick leave, we had a suspension in there as well that’s now cleared up, but these things add up and it does compound the work for the people who are coming into work everyday have to do, and it does take its toll. Unfortunately, according to our compliment, we’re full.”
The same goes for Cold Lake, who in 2018, had five parental leaves.
Parke exclaimed, “The issues we had last year are going to carry over a little bit. Things are getting a bit better and our staffing personnel in “K” Division are working with us to help alleviate some of those issue.”
Their 2019/20 priorities
“For 2019/20, the direction from “K” Division is to focus on employee wellness, community engagement, and crime reduction strategies. I believe in all of that wholeheartedly,” detailed Buchanan, adding specific drug interdiction will also be on their radar.
Bonnyville RCMP will be targeting the same issues this coming year.
Parke said the GIS unit will continue the work their doing on reducing drug trafficking.
“We look to continue similar investigations and results in the current fiscal year that we had last year.”
Traffic will also be a focus for Bonnyville officers, in addition to monitoring and disrupting the “criminal patterns of habitual individuals,” and improving police and community relations.
