Sgt. Steve Woodcox made his third quarter report, a period covering October to December 2022, to Kimberley City Council at their meeting on Monday, Feb. 13.
Calls for service were up 30 per cent from the same time last year, an increase of 344 files to 495.
This marked increase was due to a rise in break and enters to construction trailers and sheds and thefts from vehicles, Woodcox explained.
READ MORE: Suspect arrested in recent break and enter, credit card fraud: Kimberley RCMP
However, two suspects were identified and 20 criminal charges have been approved against one offender, who is currently in custody, while several arrest warrants were issued to a second offender, whose current whereabouts are unknown.
Woodcox told Council that break and enters and thefts in the area have “drastically” gone down since these suspects were identified.
“We’re hopeful this gentleman does stay away from the area, but it has made quite a difference to the call volume,” he said.
READ MORE: Man arrested for multiple thefts released on conditions of not entering Kimberley
He added that the public has been really good with reporting things to the police, and that it was due to a lot of video from residences and businesses that these individuals committed crimes at that led to many of the charges and convictions.
“I encourage the public to call and report these incidents, because a lot of the ones that they did, we were able to in a short period, figure out who did these crimes and try to bring some of this stuff to a head.
Recently, I’d say in the last couple months, it’s probably gone down 85, 90 per cent, since these individuals were in custody, so that’s good.”
Some of the stolen property was recovered, in the neighbourhood of about 20 per cent, Woodcox added, but in some instances the individuals had stolen credit cards, which were then used in Cranbrook and led to fraud charges being added.
Woodcox said that this quarter say 20 mental health related calls, up from 18 in the previous time period.
“Times are hard for people, there’s not a lot of resources and that just becomes a daily thing that we deal with, but the more that deal with the same individuals the more we start to build rapport with those individuals and some of those interactions go a lot more smoothly.”
Sudden deaths increased to nine from six the previous quarter.
The RCMP continued to do presentations at schools throughout the area and Woodcox said he still feels it to be important to engage with the youth and for the youth to know them by name.
“We’ve had many a time where they’ve come to report stuff to the police and it’s very nice that the kids have some rapport with us.”
Youth engagement, along with traffic enforcement and road safety and police visibility and engagement are the three objectives the RCMP have identified for the 2022/23 fiscal year.
paul.rodgers@kimberleybulletin
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