In the Thorsby/Breton area property crimes are on par with previous years but across the board crime rose slightly in 2016 over 2015.
“Persons crimes are up a bit. Assaults are, of course, up. Some domestic related activity, that’s driving most of these,” said Sgt. Corey Kyle, NCO in charge of the Thorsby/Breton RCMP detachment.
Kyle told Wetaskiwin county councillors during their Feb. 7 meeting that a small number of criminals can contribute to a large number of incidents, which was the case in the Buck Lake area.
“We’ve had some problems with one of our habitual offenders coming out of custody. We tried to get him into a plan where he would do a little better and it didn’t go so well. He’s back in custody,” said Kyle.
Habitual offender management remains a priority and last year 476 compliance checks were complete in 2016, almost double the 250 goal.
Impaired driving enforcement is another priority.
An impaired driving survey done in Brazeau County, which Kyle says will likely move into the County of Wetaskiwin this year, shows impaired driving is a concern and priority for rural Alberta residents. “I didn’t know if it would be in rural Alberta, but it was.”
“Sadly it’s still an area we need to focus on. We’re still finding people significantly impaired,” said Wetaskiwin RCMP detachment commander Insp. Fran Bethell, noting the general age of offenders isn’t necessarily young.
“I’d say most of our impaireds are 30 to 55,” she added.
From the Thorsby/Breton detachment statistics show: assaults rose from 37 in 2015 to 54 in 2016, missing persons was down one to five, break and enters increased slightly to 79 from 78, thefts under $5,000 decreased to 103 from 113, theft of motor vehicle rose to 29 from 24, arson doubled from two to four, incidents of mischief increased by 20 to 127, motor vehicle accidents decreased to 97 from 124 and false alarms rose from 72 to 76; all persons offences jumped from 53 to 83 and all property offenses increased from 388 to 399.