Combating rural crime continues to be a priority for MD of Bonnyville peace officers.
During his first quarterly report for MD council on July 24, Chris Garner, director of public safety, outlined the stats from April 2019 to June 2019 when it came to the rural crime prevention program, along with other initiatives.
During the second quarter, peace officers conducted 442 crime prevention patrols within the MD.
Forty per cent were targeted to a specific area where information was received that a potential crime was being committed, while the remainder were just general checks.
The most were conducted in Ward 3, which includes Glendon, with 89. Ward 5, which encompasses Ardmore and Crane Lake, had 87. Ward 1 had 77 conducted in areas such as Fort Kent, and Ward 2 communities, including Vezeau Beach and the Moose Lake subdivisions, had 68 done.
Garner noted the vacant home checks, offered through the MD’s Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) program, have been quite popular since being implemented in 2018. In this quarter alone there were 292 conducted.
MD Reeve Greg Sawchuk agreed the program has been a success.
“It’s important to people when they go away to have somebody there to just have a look at (their property), and if they don’t have neighbours or they’re in a remote location, it really works out well for the peace officers to just drop by and check on it,” he said.
Ardmore had the most checks done with 91, followed by the Moose Lake east subdivisions at 76, and Crane Lake at 31.
Tickets, Garner said, are a big part of a peace officer’s job.
“The provincial tickets, which would be your speeding and things like that, recorded were 298 of those. Provincial written warnings, which are for those same types of offences but instead of issuing a money ticket the officer has chosen to issue a written warning on a provincial warning form, there was 285 of those,” he explained.
When it came to bylaw tickets, 20 were issued while there was only one warning given.
Speeding was a problem throughout the area during the second quarter. Peace officers handed out 169 tickets or written warnings for the offence in Ward 1, 36 in Ward 2, Ward 3 had 94, Ward 4, which includes Iron River and La Corey, had 50, Ward 5 saw 57, while Ward 6 had 70 handed out in areas such as Cherry Grove and by the Cold Lake Airport.
When it came to dogs running at large, Ward 2 had the most tickets with six. Ward 1 had three and Ward 5 had two.
There were 39 commercial vehicle violation warnings written, and only six tickets during the second quarter. Garner said a driver can receive either for a number of reasons, “from having a broken hitch assembly, to not having their safety inspections done, to an active oil leak.”
When council asked about the comparison between the tickets and warnings, Garner explained he requests officers take into account a number of considerations.
“Due to the economic times, I have been a little hard on our guys to make sure they’re being compassionate and understanding when they come across issues related to violations that aren’t severe safety issues. They have a little wiggle room with the drivers,” he said.
Case report summaries, which are what a peace officer writes whenever they receive a call from the public requesting service or regarding a complaint, had 117 for regulatory bylaws, provincial statutes came in at 47, and crime prevention was at 26.
Speeding and traffic complaints was another problem residents reported. Ward 6 had the most with nine. Wards 1 and 4 had six.
Sawchuk believes the report gave council a good idea of what the public safety department has been up to, and reinforced an appreciation for their peace officers.
“They have a tough job, working between the balance of ensuring safety with the heavy trucks out there, speeders, and some of the traffic laws that are a little bit different out there. You can see that’s where they have to be pretty well-rounded in order to do that job,” he said.
The department’s ongoing initiatives include joint force operations with the local RCMP, their summer ladies self-defence classes, rural policing committee, and a crime survey that should be available soon.
