Crime stats are up but don't be alarmed

Crime stats are up but don’t be alarmed: RCMP

May 14, 2019 | 8:48 PM

The Vernon North Okanagan RCMP presented their quarterly statistics to council on Monday.

The data contains crime statistics from January to March 2019.

According to the report, criminal code cases increased by 1.79 per cent and property crime dropped by 2.79 per cent.

RCMP Superintendent Shawna Baher reassured council that the rise in offenses is not something to be overly concerned about.

“Our stats should go up if we have a very good unit in specific proactive offenses. We don’t want them going up in the property crime offenses or the B&E’s, that kind of thing, we would love for them to be able to go down,” said Baher.

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She also said that the reporting structure that police are required to use changed as of January 1.

“They made the reporting more victim specific, so anything with a victim against person crime. So sexual assault, domestic violence, assault, those files if they are reported to the police they are captured, and those stats will go forward, so it is not reflective on our report but in areas like the CSI or if the census comes out, there may be some differing varying percentages,” Baher explained.

On Monday, city council said they were relatively pleased with the RCMP’s latest report.

“Sometimes stats can be confusing, only in this case because you are doing a better job, so therefore it looks like there is more arrests and more files, but in essence you are actually doing a better job so therefore the stats are going to go up,” said City Councillor Akbal Mund.

“I just want to commend you because I see you downtown a lot and I think you are doing a great job,” said City Councillor Brian Quiring.

The Vernon North Okanagan RCMP is continuing to focus on prolific offenders as a way to combat crime.

The quarterly report indicates that 17 prolific offenders were identified by the RCMP this quarter. Seven offenders are in custody and 10 people are not in custody.