Salmon Arm RCMP saw an increase in property crime over the latter months of 2023, driven in part by incidents of mischief.
Presenting his report on the final quarter of 2023 (October to December) at the Jan. 22 city council meeting, Staff Sgt. Scott West said break and enter reports were down within the city over the same period in 2022 (from 19 to 8) but had increased in rural areas (1 to 11), while other property crime reports had increased, from 183 to 248 in the city and 42 to 64 in rural areas. Driving the increase locally, said West, was thefts of property, fraud and mischief. He said mischief accounted for 47 per cent of the 35 per cent increase in property crime.
鈥淪o, a fairly low level ,nuisance type crime in most cases,鈥� said West regarding the incidents of Criminal Code mischief. 鈥淭hat would be loss of enjoyment of property, so somebody causing a disturbance or they are impeding someone in using their property, i.e., a business owner and their front steps, that would be Criminal Code mischief.鈥�
West included with his report a property crime 鈥渉otspot鈥� map for the quarter.
鈥淚t once again shows that areas of heavy commerce and businesses are our highest call volume for property crime,鈥� said West, noting property crime is the city鈥檚 most prolific type of crime, and stressing again that most numerous among these involve mischief and fraud.
Over the quarter, Salmon Arm officers responded to more than 1,882 calls for service, with 1,395 coming from within the city. For all of 2023, the detachment responded to 8,817 calls for service.
On the road, officers conducted 185 traffic stops over the last quarter. West said 37 of these were high risk driving charges; 鈥渢hat will be your intersections, distracted driving and higher risk for driving while prohibited, as well as excessive speed.鈥�
During one of these stops along the highway, West said police seized more than three kilograms of suspected methamphetamine. A separate impaired driving investigation led to the seizure of more than 36 grams of crack cocaine and $2,000, and the driver being charged with impaired driving.
鈥淭here was 26 collisions with damage over $10,000 or injuries reported within Salmon Arm within the quarter, down by 1 over 2022 numbers,鈥� said West.
Another focus for police over the last quarter was the city鈥檚 鈥渦nhoused鈥� population. He said the detachment worked with city bylaw and public works in moving people into the Marshlands Shelter that opened on Dec. 12.
鈥淲e made sure that everybody that we dealt with that was living rough or unhoused knew the shelter was available, and I think that鈥檚 been a very high contributing factor to its occupancy rate,鈥� said West.
Coun. Louise Wallace Richmond spoke to the importance of the RCMP鈥檚 involvement, working with other local partners leading up to that transition.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 important that the community know the RCMP was there from the beginning on those calls to make sure that the unhomed were provided the best accommodation we could under the circumstances, and the resulting temporary shelter is really a tribute to all that partnership, because otherwise I don鈥檛 think it would have happened if we didn鈥檛 have everybody onboard,鈥� said Wallace Richmond, adding 鈥渁 lot of people are living in much safer conditions than they were even six months ago, and that takes a community effort to achieve.鈥�
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Salmon Arm RCMP provided the following breakdown of files from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, 2023.
- 50 x Theft under $5000
- 2 x Theft over $5000
- 11 x Theft from motor vehicle
- 5 x Theft of automobile
- 18 x Theft of truck
- 9 x Theft of bicycle
- 88 x Mischief loss of enjoyment of property
- 66 x Mischief under $5000
- 1 x Mischief over $5000
- 4 x Break and enter residence
- 11 x Break and enter business
- 65 x Cause disturbance
- 172 x Suspicious person or vehicle
- 48 x False 911 calls
- 33 x Assault
- 8 x Assault with a weapon or causing bodily harm
- 131 x Check well-being
- 157 x False alarm
- 18 x Motor vehicle collision damage over $10000
- 65 x Motor vehicle collision damage under $10000
- 56 x Mental Health Occurrence
- 16 x Assist Coroner
