Property crimes down

DIDSBURY - Didsbury RCMP Staff Sgt. Chad Fournier gave the quarterly report for the department to Didsbury council at its recent meeting. He recapped the statistics for the department from January to June of this year.

Fournier emphasized that property crimes for the Town of Didsbury, as well as the rest of the detachment's coverage area, was down this year as compared to this time last year.

"There's been a remarkable decrease in property crimes from 2017 to 2018," said Fournier. "Break and enters have gone down about 65 per cent from 33 to 10.  Theft from motor vehicles has also gone down by roughly 65 per cent from 36 to 11. Theft over $5,000 has gone from five in 2017 to one in 2018. Theft under $5,000 is about a 50 per cent decrease from 66 in 2017 to 29 in 2018."

Other property crime stats saw possession of stolen goods decrease from 25 in 2017 to 12 in 2018, fraud remained the same with 15 cases reported in 2017 and 2018. There were no reported arsons in 2017 or 2018.

"Mischief to property is down over 50 per cent," he said. "Mischief to property is generally damage to property. It was 97 in 2017 to 44 in 2018."

Fournier attributed the decrease to the great work of the members of the Didsbury RCMP detachment as well as the Sundre and Olds detachments to combat crime.

"There have been specific initiatives targeting prolific offenders in our area," he said. "We've had some major investigation in the last 10 months where a lot of these local prolific offenders have been charged."

Fournier said another big factor is the formation of the Southern Alberta District Crime Reduction Team, which was formed about six months ago.

"They've been working extensively in our area doing surveillance and arresting people with outstanding warrants," he said.

In other police news, three young offenders, who cannot be named, have been charged by Didsbury RCMP recently.

• On Sept. 7 in Didsbury, a 17-year-old male from Didsbury, was charged with two counts of failing to comply with a court order by failing to abstain from the consumption of alcohol or other intoxicating substances.
•  On Sept. 13 in Didsbury, a 16-year-old male from Calgary was charged with uttering threats to a Didsbury resident. There has been a warrant put out for his arrest.
• On Aug. 24 in Carstairs, a 15-year-old male from Carstairs was charged with assault with a weapon.