It appears that crime in Drumheller may have fallen off a bit, but Staff Sergeant Art Hopkins says the number of incidents may not be the only measure of a safe community.
Not all crime is created equal.
“For instance, theft of a chocolate bar, when compared to a stabbing… a stabbing would get a higher severity value. One is property, one is person crime,” said Hopkins, explaining the Crime Severity Index. “When you look at the numbers, we are seeing very little difference between 2009 and 2011.
He said in 2010 however, the severity numbers are higher. He explains this is when the RCMP began to more actively arrest inmates involved in offenses at the Drumheller Institution.
“This was the first year we started working up at the pen full-time,” he said.
In many cases, offenses in an institutional setting, such as assaults, were higher on the severity index and they reflect the numbers for all of Drumheller.
“Ultimately, we are pretty consistent, save for 2010, but all in all it hasn’t changed a lot,” said Hopkins.
He adds that since the police have been more active at the institution, instances of crime numbers have also dropped.
“When you see the numbers they are pretty much the same, but technically we have dropped,” he said.
When looking at the crime severity index, Alberta in 2011 remains about 10 points higher than the national average, but lowest in the four western provinces.
Drumheller, when compared with like-sized Alberta communities appeared to come up about average. Whitecourt, Banff and Edson are higher, while Innisfail and Sylvan Lake are lower.
Along with a package of crime severity, Hopkins also presented the year-to-date incident numbers to Drumheller Town Council. Overall numbers appear to be consistent and do not reveal any particular trend.
Hopkins says one area where the numbers are much higher is traffic, and that is all related to enforcement.
“This was the first summer where we had more staff … and we’ve done a lot in terms of traffic enforcement,” said Hopkins.
Provincial traffic enforcement is up 75.7 per cent from January to October. There were 1,854 incidents, compared to 1,055 in the same time period the year before.
“Our accidents are down. With increased enforcement, generally that is what happens. The reason is people slow down when we are more visible—people drive more respectfully,” said Hopkins.
He said the one priority and concern going forward continues to be fraud.
“That is a crime group where we can be proactive as opposed to reactive in many instances. The more people talk about it the better, because every time you tell a story about a new way people are trying to separate you from your money, other people learn from it,” said Hopkins. “We have had way more attempts, but fewer successes of people getting conned out of their money.”