The Beiseker Provincial RCMP detachment, which also covers Irricana and rural surrounding areas, witnessed an increase in property crime in 2016 accompanied by a decrease in persons crime.
In a Jan. 23 report to the Village of Beiseker council, detachment commander Sergeant Glen Demmon said he was especially pleased to see the number of assaults drop from 47 in 2015 to 29 in 2016.
“We’re bucking the trend in respect to assault,” he said.
Though the detachment responded to many calls concerning disturbances, disputes or augments, Demmon said RCMP was often able to step in before the situation escalated.
Getting involved at this stage, he said, allows officers to help the individuals get a system in place, such as counselling, to curb any further escalation.
“For us, the amount of paper work whether they hit each other or not is the same,” Demmon said. “But everybody wins if we can intervene at an earlier stage.”
Other persons crimes in 2016 included one case of robbery, two cases of sexual assault, 14 cases of criminal harassment and 16 incidents of uttering threats, which decreased from 32 in 2015.
Overall, total persons crimes decreased to 63 in 2016 from 102 in 2015.
Total property crime, which rose from 298 occurrences in 2015 to 354 in 2016, was due in large part to a rise in motor vehicle theft, he said.
The number of vehicles stolen increased from 19 in 2015 to 31 in 2016 and Demmon said it remains one of the detachment’s main concerns at the moment.
He said RCMP is not seeing clusters of motor vehicle thefts happening in a particular community that can then be targeted and addressed, as it has in the past.
“The last few months, what we’ve been seeing is that it’s just spread out over everywhere,” Demmon said. “There’s no one particular area that is any worse than the other.”
Break and enters increased from 53 cases in 2015 to 60 in 2016, while theft over $5,000 increased from seven to eight and theft under $5,000 climbed from 64 to 74.
According to the report, 2016 also saw 46 cases of fraud, an increase of 25 from the year before, as well as 32 cases of possession of stolen goods and 97 incidents of mischief to property.
Bringing up Bassano
The half-burnt Bassano train station, which caught fire on Sept. 18, 2015, was a topic of conversation once again in Beiseker.
Mayor Ray Courtman told members of council he would like to see the derelict building dealt with before he retires from municipal politics in October.
“I’m running out of months here,” he said. “We’ve got to do something.”
Courtman sent a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in regards to the station, as he said a large federal grant was given to the Alberta 2005 Centennial Railway Museum Society (RMS) to restore the building.
He said he was also in the process of penning a letter to Alberta premier Rachel Notley in hopes of getting some resolution to the matter.
The problem for the village is that RMS-owned station resides on Alberta TrailNet property, which Courtman said limits what the village could do about the situation.
“I absolutely categorically refuse to have the village pay for anything over there,” he said.
“It is my firm belief that whoever we decide to bill or blame for it will just reflect it right back on the village and we cannot afford it.”
