Red Deer’s final crime statistics for 2017 show some encouraging results, with a significant slowing in the rate of increase for property crimes over the year compared to the rate of increase over the last five years.
More encouraging yet, for the final three months of 2017, total property crime numbers in Red Deer were lower than the same time period in 2016, according to a press release.
And drilling down even deeper, December of 2017 showed no increase in break and enters and a notable decrease in theft of motor vehicles when compared to December of 2016.
Other highlights of the final quarter show that persons crimes in 2017 remained at the same levels as in 2016, with fewer robberies but more sexual assaults.
Total Criminal Code numbers for 2017 were slightly lower than 2016 numbers.
Traffic collisions resulting in injury continue to decrease every year; however, Red Deer saw one traffic fatality in 2017. Collisions involving property damage increased slightly when compared to 2016 but remain lower than property damage collision numbers for 2013, 2014 and 2015.
Criminal charges for possession of stolen property rose throughout 2017, as RCMP continue to target those career criminals responsible for much of the property crime in the community.
“These numbers are indicative of the hard work Red Deer police officers are doing every day through our Pinpoint crime reduction work, through our collaboration with the Priority Crimes Task Force, and through special projects like the covert stolen vehicle operation last month and the warrant round-up just before Christmas,” said Supt. Ken Foster, officer in charge at Red Deer RCMP detachment.
“We are committed to continuing to slow and stop the increase in property crimes, and believe that the various crime reduction strategies we’re employing are the right course of action – the encouraging numbers for the fourth quarter appear to support that belief.”
Between Oct. 12th and Jan. 10th, Red Deer RCMP conducted 644 checks on targeted people, places and criminal patterns, including 23 identified people on parole and/ or probation and 20 more career criminals with an active history of property crime.
Preliminary analysis for quarter three shows at least 149 charges have been laid specific to targets identified through Pinpoint, the detachment’s crime reduction strategy; 56 warrants have been executed through daily police work, and another 110 were executed in December during a five-day warrant round-up.
“Community safety and crime reduction have been identified as the top priority by our public. In response to community concern, City council has been actively working with City staff, the RCMP and community agencies to elevate our local enforcement and crime prevention efforts,” said Mayor Tara Veer.
“We have begun to see reductions in organized and persons crime, through the priorities in our local Annual Policing Plan. We know, however, we still have substantial work to do specifically with respect to property theft, for example. In council’s operating budget deliberations, we have approved an additional 10 officers in order to reduce the caseload per officer, allowing us to shift from a reactive to proactive policing model.”
