So far Williams Lake has seen a substantial decrease in crime trends in 2018, with the exception of theft from vehicles, said RCMP Insp. Jeff Pelley during a presentation to city council Tuesday.
Outlining the stats from Jan. 1 to Oct. 31, 2018, he said there were 35 theft of vehicles, down from 59 the year before.
Break and enters to residences totalled 30 compared to 65 in 2017, spousal assaults totalled 44 compared to 46 in 2017, possession of stolen property totalled eight compared to 10 in 2017, there were 25 assaults with a weapons causing bodily harm, down from 30 in 2017.
There was one aggravated assault in 2018 and one in 2017, 118 common assaults in 2018 compared to 134 in 2017, 159 mischief files compared to 180 in 2017 and 119 traffic violations compared to 143 in 2017.
There were some increases, however.
The biggest spike was for theft from vehicles which rose from 79 in 2017 to 176 in 2018.
Break and enter to businesses went up from 44 in 2017 to 46 in 2018 and robbery up from 10 in 2017 to 19 in 2018.
Drug possession went from 126 in 2017 to 153 in 2018, drug trafficking from 14 in 2017 to 24 in 2018 due to proactive targeting of drug traffickers and offenders by the force’s crime reduction unit, Pelley said.
Impaired driving charges increased from 50 in 2017 to 82 in 2018.
Read more: Police make impaired driving arrest near two schools Thursday afternoon
Pelley said there have been no homicides in the city for 2018.
The police received 6,708 calls for service in 2018 compared to 6,623 in 2017.
Of the 67 curfew checks done in the month of October, there were seven breach files with recommended charges.
“We did an operational plan where we identified 13 offenders and targeted them over three weeks and of these offenders, 29 arrests were made and 27 charges recommended,” Pelley said. “We do not know the outcome, but we are tracking them and will report out on them.”
Pelley said three offenders remain in custody, and two remain out of custody on bail conditions which involve curfews.
Coun. Ivan Bonnell asked after the detachment’s success rate in bringing charges forward, Pelley said it depends on the offence.
“We’ve had a 68 per cent clearance rate of the robberies this year and they are deemed as very serious offences. Now some of them are shifting away from a robbery investigation and being assault with a weapon and possession with a weapon.”
Pelley said the detachment submitted 608 reports to Crown Counsel in 2018 that have an array of multiple charges on one file or multiple offenders on one file or one offender having multiple charges on one file.
Williams Lake RCMP Crime Stats Jan to Nov. 2018 by WL Tribune on Scribd
Insp. Pelley’s report
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