Local RCMP responded to fewer calls in the second quarter of this calendar year than during the same period last year, RCMP Staff Sgt. Grant MacDonald told Burns Lake council last week.
According to MacDonald’s quarterly policing report, members of the Burns Lake RCMP detachment responded to 875 calls for service between April 1 and June 30 of this year, down 5.7 per cent from last year’s second quarter total of 927 calls. MacDonald noted, however, that the detachment lodged 115 prisoners during the same period this year, an increase of 51.3 per cent over last year’s second quarter total of 76.
“In relation to our calls for service at this point in time, to July 14, this is the fourth year in a row that our calls have gone down,” he said. “And as for our prisoners, this is the first time we’ve seen a spike in the last four years.”
Staff Sgt. MacDonald didn’t attribute the drop in calls for service to any single factor, but did indicate that initiatives put in place by the RCMP here probably contributed to the decline. He also suggested that there is still some reluctance to report incidents to police.
“I think it’s (the drop in calls for service) a combination of some of the initiatives that we’ve put in place to address some of the issues, but I think that we still have work to do in getting victims to report certain types of crime,” he stated. “There’s a reluctance still out there to report all crime, and it’s not just the serious crimes, it’s also the petty crimes.
“People don’t understand how important it is to report everything to us, because you never know. If someone’s broken into your car, and you’re the only person, you think it’s just you, so you don’t call it in. Meanwhile, we’ve had six other people in that neighbourhood who have reported it. It’s important for us to know so we can dedicate resources, or look at ways we can conduct our investigation and put resources toward catching people in the act.”
“Crime goes up, crime goes down. There’s trends all the time. It’s for a variety of reasons, it’s not any one set thing.”
While many of the calls received by Burns Lake RCMP were relatively minor in nature, MacDonald noted that detachment members also responded to a number of serious incidents in the second quarter of 2015, including the murder of three individuals at a Fifth Ave. residence on or about April 27.
“The deaths were deemed suspicious, and in the ensuing investigation, a 54-year-old male from Burns Lake was arrested and charged with three counts of second degree murder,” MacDonald said. “North District Major Crime Unit took the lead in this investigation with support from various support sections throughout British Columbia. This matter continues to be before the courts.”
As might be expected, most of the calls received by the Burns Lake RCMP detachment originate within the municipality itself. Statistics for the second quarter of this year indicated that approximately 48 per cent of the detachment’s 875 total calls were placed within the municipality. Nearly 22 per cent came from the Lake Babine Nation, with another 23.8 per cent coming from rural areas surrounding the municipality.