(STEVE ARSTAD / iNFOnews.ca)
April 21, 2017 - 2:29 PM
PENTICTON - Crime appears to be on the rise in the Okanagan Similkameen Regional District, with only one detachment showing a decrease in calls for service in the first quarter of 2017.
Every detachment in the regional district experienced increases in both calls for service and criminal code files in the first quarter, except Summerland, where calls for service dropped by five per cent from 585 to 553.
Keremeos saw the biggest increase in criminal code files, up from 49 in 2016 to 65 in 2017, an increase of 24.6 per cent.
Calls for service in Penticton were up 2.9 percent from 4,119 in first quarter 2016 to 4,238. Criminal codes files in the city were also up 16.5 per cent in first quarter from 1,088 in 2016 to 1,267 in 2017.
Penticton saw a big increase in break and enters over the first quarter last year, from 13 offences to 43, an increase of 223 per cent. Sex offences were also up from three to nine in the first quarter of 2017, an increase of 200 per cent. Trafficking cases also jumped 200 per cent, from two to six.
Drug possession charges were down 52 per cent from 60 to 29, fatal collisions down 100 per cent from one death in 2016 to none in 2017.
Twenty-four hour suspensions and immediate roadside prohibitions were also down, 33 per cent and 29 per cent respectively, from six to four 24 hour suspensions, and 31 to 22 Immediate Roadside Prohibitions.
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News from © iNFOnews, 2017