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Latest Red Deer crime stats show close to status quo

Nov 15, 2017 | 2:56 PM

Red Deer’s top cop says crime is down or slowing down in certain areas.

Crime stats for the third quarter of 2017 were released by The City of Red Deer on Wednesday.

“I’m pleased to say that persons offences and robberies both continue to trend lower than the same time periods last year,” said Red Deer RCMP Supt. Ken Foster. “Total Criminal Code numbers in the first three quarters of 2017 show a slight increase over the same time frame last year.”

The growth of property crimes in Red Deer has slowed, traffic collisions resulting in injury have gone down despite two fatalities this year, and collisions involving property damage saw a slight uptick compared to last year.

In quarter three, total property crime numbers were also stagnant compared to the same time frame in 2016.

The City of Red Deer says criminal charges for possession of stolen property continue to rise as RCMP target career criminals responsible for a large chunk of the local property crimes. Between July 12 and October 11, Mounties conducted 786 checks on targeted people, places and criminal patterns, and identified 26 people on parole and/or probation, as well as 24 other career criminals with an active history of property crime.

At least 104 charges were laid specific to targets identified through Operation Pinpoint, the detachment’s crime reduction strategy. Ninety-six warrants were executed through daily police work, and another 127 were executed during a four-day warrant round round-up in August.

“Community safety and crime reduction have been identified as the top priority by our public. In response to community concern, city council has been actively working with City staff, the RCMP and community agencies to elevate our local enforcement and crime prevention efforts,” said Mayor Tara Veer.

“We have begun to see reductions in organized and persons crime, through the enforcement priorities in our local Annual Policing Plan. We know, however, we still have substantial work to do specifically with respect to property theft, for example. Initiatives such as Project Pinpoint are focusing on prolific offenders in order to reduce property crime.”

Full 2017 Q3 crime statistics can be viewed at RedDeer.ca.