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Your LOCAL Media since 1918! Volume 106 Issue 19
www.tofieldmerc.com
Wednesday, January 10, 2024
Tofield RCMP seeing lower crime Sgt. Paul hopeful to get rates ‘even lower’ Jana Semeniuk Staff Reporter
Tofield RCMP Sgt. Cameron Paul gave a detachment second quarter update (July to September) to Ryley council members during the village council meeting Dec. 12, sharing crime statistics pointing towards a decreased crime rate. “We did a project identifying habitual offenders (where our) members identified six active, prolific offenders that are involved in property crime, or drug related crime,” he said, adding that an additional four were identified bringing the total to 10. Sgt. Paul said that of the 10 identified, seven are currently either serving prison terms or remanded awaiting trial, two out on bail, and another out on bail with lifted restrictions. “Those on community release we are monitoring very regularly,” he said. Sgt. Paul said that possession of stolen property crimes are up 25 percent from last year but it was expected. “There was an increase in possession property crime, which was expected. If you catch people with stolen property, those charges are going to go up,” he said. Councillor Sheldon Reid asked Sgt. Paul for details around the monitoring of criminals out on community release.
“We work really closely with Alberta Probation, so when people are out on release, like pretrial release, then they are being monitored by probation. But in addition to that, we work with probation to monitor them. So they may have street enforceable conditions, that we will follow up with them,” he said. “But if we have one that doesn't have those specifically, when they're residing in our area, we just make a point of making our presence known to them as much as we possibly can.” Other parts of Sgt. Paul’s report showed a rise in drug charges from zero in 2022 to two in 2023, however an overall drop from six in 2019. Municipal traffic bylaw charges remained at zero while municipal bylaw charges dropped from seven in 2022 to five in 2023 and total motor vehicle collisions dropped from 34 in 2022 to 31 in 2023 which was a further drop from 2019 when 39 were reported. Sgt. Paul said that overall, the Tofield area has shown a 38 percent decrease in criminal code offenses and while he is happy with that, he said they want to push it even lower. “We're trending downwards. And of course, I want to get this even lower. A 38 percent decrease is really good. We're going to push harder at it,” he said. “The crew is really wanting to, especially with the rural property crime (although) it’s not as bad in this jurisdiction as some others.”
Tofield RCMP Sgt. Cameron Paul gave a police update to the Ryley village council on Dec. 12 showing decreases in several crime categories in JANA SEMENIUK PHOTO 2023 as compared to 2022.
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