Property offences in Williams Lake have increased with 1597 calls for service so far in 2020 compared to 1397 calls for service in 2019.
“We have a number of offenders in our community and upwards of 48 offenders on curfew conditions last month on and off,” said Insp. Jeff Pelley, officer in charge of the Williams Lake RCMP during Tuesday’s regular council meeting.
“There were 78 curfew checks and we had 11 breaches for seven different offenders. Some are prolific, some are not.”
There were seven people wearing electronic monitoring devices, but presently there are three.
A prolific offender arrested on Thursday, Oct. 1 had actually cut off his electronic monitoring device, Pelley said.
Other statistics Pelley shared as part of his police commission report for September 2020 showed an increase in auto theft with 114 offences so far in 2020 compared to 90 in 2019.
Theft from motor vehicles increased with 239 offences in 2020, compared to 169 offences in 2019. Break and enter to businesses increased with 52 incidents in 2020 compared to 47 offences in 2019.
Drug possession offences increased with 100 in 2020 and 89 in 2019 and drug traffickin offence increased with 55 in 2020 and 57 offences in 2019.
Referring to some recent convictions and sentences, Pelley said Darcy William was found guilty of possession of a weapon for dangerous purpose in relation to a firearm being discharged at Diamonds and Dust.
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“The offender received 50 days jail as pre sentence in custody time and a 12-month probation order,” Pelley noted.
On Sept. 17, 2020, Donovan Boyd, charged with aggravated assault, was found guilty of the lesser charge of assault with a weapon and released on a conditional sentence of 267 days, a firearm prohibition, a DNA order and 15 conditions as part of a conditional sentence.
Kurt Kujannek, convicted of seven offences involving fraud, possession of stolen property, breach and obstruction of a peace officer, was sentence on Sept. 26, 2020. He received 90 day jail pre-sentence time and probation for two years with 13 conditions.
Pelley told council while he is seeing more eyes and ears from the community and more reports, he is also hearing frustration.
“Sometimes there is a direct correlation with property crime and substance use offences and trafficking so we are really focusing on those residences in the community and surrounding communities that are associated with drug trafficking,” he said.
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