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(KIM ANDERSON / iNFOnews.ca)

Kamloops RCMP say crime was down in all categories for the first quarter of the year.

That's when compared to the first three months of the last three years, according to an RCMP report to Kamloops city council.

It represents an overall reduction of 1,500 reports to police from crimes against people and property to traffic violations. The former are down by more than 20% from 2023.

While the report only includes the months of January to March, Supt. Jeff Pelley did note that there was a recent "dramatic" spike in business break-ins.

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"The trend appears to have taken two forms, those being smash-and-grab style breaks versus break-ins to commercial compounds," he said in his report.

Police narrowed the break-ins down to a small number of suspects and nabbed two prolific offenders. They also stepped up downtown patrols and the break-ins there "stopped almost completely within 48 hours," his report read.

One offender is currently in custody and police said he will "hopefully" get a three to four year federal sentence following a plea agreement from prosecutors, according to the report. No identifying information about that court file or the offender was included in the report.

In the first three months of the year, 100 break-ins at businesses and 37 at homes were reported to police. For businesses, that's a drop by 16 from the same time last year but up by six for residential break-ins.

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Among property crime changes in the first quarter, vehicle thefts took a dramatic dip from 2023. Compared to last year there was a 44% drop in auto thefts to 95 in the first quarter. In 2023, 169 vehicles were stolen in the same period, according to the report.

But Pelley indicated there would be an increase again in vehicle thefts because while patrols focused attention on business break-ins, it created a "gap that auto thieves have exploited."

Along with the dropping property crime trends, violent crimes took a dip in the first quarter as well. Sexual assaults, robberies and assaults were all down an average 19%, according to the report.

Pelley noted there was an increase in gang-related violent crime more recently due to a feud between local drug traffickers. Local police have been working with the province's gang squad to suppress the gang violence.

The more obvious violence like public shootings and arsons appear to have gone quiet since police stepped up enforcement last month, but Pelley did not provide a detailed update on their gang enforcement efforts in the report.

Go here to read the report in full.

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