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September 17, 2018 - 11:51 AM
PENTICTON - Penticton’s main tourism months accounted for more than 25 per cent of the RCMP detachment’s total number of calls to date this year.
The latest quarterly report from Penticton RCMP comes with a breakdown of statistics for July and August to illustrate the impact of summer activity on the city’s crime stats. Out of just over 14,000 calls to the detachment this year approximately 3,700 occurred in July and August.
Out of 109 auto thefts reported this year in Penticton, 37 occurred during July and August.
In the category of persons violent crime, 114 of the total 328 incidents reported to the Penticton detachment this year occurred during July and August, while 786 of the city’s total number of 2,349 property crimes also took place during the same two-month period.
The RCMP report also breaks down the numbers for the two-month period of May and June.
Business break and enters jumped from 24 incidents in May and June, to 45 in July and August, an increase of 88 per cent, while persons violent crime (domestic) jumped 123 per cent from 13 to 29 incidents.
All the crime categories measured by police jumped significantly in the two-month summer period compared to May and June, except offences under the Mental Health Act, which fell 16 per cent from 149 incidents to 125, and residential break and enter, which remained steady at 20 incidents over each two-month period.
In the broad persons violent crime category, 114 offences were committed in July and August, up 46 per cent from 2017 when 78 offences occurred, and up 32 per cent year to date over last year.
Also in the persons violent crime category, 50 common assault charges were recorded by the detachment in July and August, including 11 assaults with a weapon and 19 cases of uttering threats. Of the 50 common assault files, 18 involved domestic violence.
A total of 27 per cent of the year’s calls to the detachment, year to date, have occurred in July and August.
The latest Penticton quarterly police stats also continue to show rising incidents of theft from autos. Theft from vehicles was up five per cent over the second quarter last year with 390 cases reported against 372 over the same period a year ago.
“I continue to ask you what it will take to stop this, since the majority of this crime occurs when valuables are left in plain view inside unlocked vehicles,” Penticton RCMP detachment Supt. Ted De Jager says in his report.
Sixty-one per cent of the detachment’s calls continue to deal with non-chargeable files.
De Jager will present the quarterly report to city council on Tuesday, Sept. 18 at City Hall.
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