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(STEVE ARSTAD / iNFOnews.ca)

Penticton RCMP saw crime go down by 4% in the final quarter of 2021 but it was up 2% over the course of the entire year.

The number of calls to RCMP followed a similar trend. They were down 3% last quarter and up 1% over the year.

Those figures were shared with city council today, Feb. 1, by detachment commander Supt. Brian Hunter who also shared some of his observations.

He mentioned the shooting at Wicked Electronics on Dec. 19, when bullet holes were found in the windows of the Main Street business.

“The city is well aware of that business. We’ve been working with staff in managing that place. We are aware of all the players in that shooting event, and the investigation is going very well," Hunter said.

Sexual offences were up 50% in the quarter and up 16% over the year, and sexual assaults were one of the driving factors behind that increase, Hunter said.

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He pointed out that 35% of sexual assaults occurred between people in the same social group, although not necessarily in an intimate relationship.

Some sexual assaults are reported anonymously by a third party, he said.

“As you can imagine, investigating those can be a bit of a challenge, but it is important that police are aware of activities that happen within the community. We will never know who the victim is but every single instance that is reported to us deserves a fulsome investigation and we certainly do that," Hunter said.

There was a 56% increase in break and enters in the last quarter, but the total number only jumped from nine to 14.

“So the number nine in and of itself was a small starting point," he said.

Homes were the majority of the targets, and they were broken into through the front door 29% of the time, and 21% of the properties were not property secured.

Although officers in Penticton are dealing with twice as many mental health calls as their counterparts in Kelowna and Kamloops, the number of calls related to domestic violence has seen a disproportionate drop.

“I’m sure we’ve heard reports out there about just the pandemic and being at home in close quarters. There has been an uptick in domestic violence, but not in the City of Penticton, I’m very happy about that," Hunter said.

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He is optimistic about 2022 because the detachment will have four more officers than it did last year.

“I’m happy to say one member arrived last week," he said.

Two other officers are expected to arrive after completing their training at depot later this month, and the fourth is a“seasoned officer from southern B.C. who’s expected to arrive within two months.

In an email last November, the City’s communication manager Philip Cooper said there will be a total of 55 officers in 2022.

Calls for service have remained relatively low since the pandemic was declared in March 2020.

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