The whole South East District had a spike in crime this past summer, Cpl. Chris Newel, Kimberley RCMP Detachment Commander, told City Council last week.
Newel was delivering the third quarter policing report to the regular council meeting last Monday.
The last time Newel delivered a policing report, back in August, he delivered the good news that a number of arrests had been made that should see a rash of thefts come to an end.
“Unfortunately I had to eat my words about two weeks later because crime spiked again. The whole South East District had a huge spike over the summer so our situation is not abnormal.”
Newel said that at the time there a few “travelling road shows” responsible for some of the local crime. For example, he said, a few suspects from Kimberley crimes were arrested in Dawson.
At the same time, Newel says, Kimberley enjoys one of the lowest crime rates in the province. In terms of drug problems, he said Kimberley suffers no more than any other community.
“In addition to the focus of our Crime Reduction Unit, we monitor prolific offenders and those on court ordered conditions. Historically we have not had many issues with those on court orders and typically very few charges result from the checks. In September we had several subjects who we believe were responsible for a large spike in our crime rate on conditions. Fortunately we were able to get them charged and place on conditions. They were checked almost every night and our theft reports dropped to almost nil. In September and October, police conducted 57 checks,” notes Newel’s report to Council.
“The new two person Cranbrook/Kimberley Crime Reduction Unit got underway a year ago. In that year they have executed 15 search warrants and made arrests in seven other drug investigations. They have also assisted in a number of Criminal Code investigations. Over the past quarter there were four drug investigations, one of which was in Kimberley. The subject was arrested in Cranbrook for Trafficking, but the search warrant was executed at his residence in Kimberley. The ratio of Cranbrook to Kimberley files is usually about 80/20, but we find a number of the subjects have connections in both communities. Even though there are only two members they are very productive and have assisted Kimberley on a number of occasions with excellent results. Our concern is the increase in dangerous drugs the team is coming across which include Fentenyal and Heroin. We have also found Fentaynal disguised as OxyContin, which can be deadly.”