Sgt. Chris Newel of the Kimberley RCMP delivered the last quarter police report to Council this past Monday evening.
He reported that it was a relatively quiet quarter, and perhaps the cold weather kept people inside.
“There has been considerable discussion in the media about the road conditions and collisions,” the report says. “Although we did notice a rise in collisions this is typical and fortunately we did not see any serious injury collisions. A large percentage were vehicles that had gone off the road and police attendance is not required. Our traffic contacts were 164 down from 179 in the last quarter. Eleven impaired drivers were removed from the road, over double the amount from the last quarter but more in line with the norm. There was twenty nine road checks as well above the fifteen over the previous quarter and six from the summer. In addition to the emphasis on road checks over the festive season the summer quarter is usually considerably busier and officers don’t have as much time to be proactive.”
Kimberley Detachment members continued to be visible in the community. Newel reports that officers did seven bar checks and 29 foot patrols through various venues including hockey games, ski hill and the Platzl. Twenty documented patrols were made to Wasa. This is down from the thirty three during the summer, but then the call volume and number of visitors to the area drops after the summer. Officers attended schools twenty nine times from October to December. Although some are scheduled class visits or presentations most are informal visits engaging in conversation with students’ parents and/or teachers.
There are currently two people in the community under court ordered conditions, meaning police keep an eye on them. Five compliance checks were done in the last quarter and there were no charges.
“The detachment was called to investigate/attend 491 calls for service in this quarter which is 72 (-14 %) less calls than the previous quarter and 46 more calls (+9) from the same quarter in 2015. The number of calls is consistent with other years. We did not experience the spikes in crime like 2015. This past quarter although higher than the same quarter in 2015 has not been very busy. This has allowed officers to be more proactive in the area of foot patrols, road checks and the community as a whole. Typically crime rates drop during the colder months.”