Drumheller RCMP Staff Sergeant Ed Bourque provided town council with the 2021 Quarter 4 Drumheller municipal crime report and statistics during the regular Monday, January 24 council meeting.
There was an overall nine per cent increase in total criminal code offenses in 2021 compared to the previous year, though S/Sgt Bourque says it’s important to look at the whole picture and not just the statistics.
“Criminal Harassment, for example, we had two (cases) in 2017, 11 in 2018, then it went down and back up to 11 in 2021,” S/Sgt Bourque tells the Mail.
While at first glance it may seem as though Criminal Harassment files have gone up by a staggering 450 per cent since 2017, S/Sgt Bourque notes the reality is a single additional case can disproportionally inflate the statistics due to Drumheller’s low crime numbers.
Although increasing calls can be a point of concern, S/Sgt Bourque points out these increases are minimal in comparison to other municipalities where a 100 per cent increase could mean hundreds of additional cases.
S/Sgt Bourque also noted some offences tend to increase in a cyclical pattern due to extenuating factors such as prolonged cold weather and financial struggles putting additional strains on people and leading to possible calls.
Another apparent increase in crime is most likely related to an increase in officers carrying out more community patrols. The additional patrols have allowed officers to conduct more checks on known and habitual offenders in these communities, which has resulted in additional charges for Failure to Comply and Breach.
Although some criminal offences did increase, there were some areas where the statistics decreased.
There was a 43 per cent decrease in Break and Enter instances, equating to 41 fewer instances; motor vehicle thefts were also down 32 per cent with seven fewer instances.
A similar trend was also seen in the rural, provincial areas serviced by the Drumheller detachment, including the villages of Carbon, Delia, Morrin, and Munson, and the hamlets of Dalum, Dorothy, and Rowley.