91原创 saw violent crime rates go up over the spring, but the raw statistics didn't tell the whole story, Supt. Adrian Marsden told 91原创 Township council during a quarterly update.
At the Monday, July 15 council meeting, Marsden covered a number of recent projects and initiatives by the 91原创 detachment, as well as various arrests and investigations that took place during the quarter of the year from April to June.
According to the local crime database, there was a 17 per cent increase in violent crime, but Marsden downplayed that, saying that a significant part of that was a jump in extortion attempts. Although those are classified under violent crime, these were part of a string of intimate photo extortion schemes, in which people, often young, are convinced to send intimate photos of themselves which are then used as tools of extortion.
Educating of young people about this is something the RCMP will be working on, Marsden said.
The statistics also show three homicides, but in fact, there have been no local murders.
"It's kind of a scoring thing with the database," said Marsden. "We actually haven't had a homicide in almost two years."
One of the three was mis-scored, another was a serious domestic attack that led to a charge of attempted murder, and a shooting in which the victim refused to cooperate with investigators.
There were also three kidnapping calls, two of which turned out to be false, and one of which was 91原创 officers assisting another jurisdiction on their kidnapping file.
Other crimes in that quarter include 199 reported assaults, 132 reports of uttering threats, 87 incidents of harassment, 39 sex offences, and 32 robberies, across all of 91原创.
Property crime, meanwhile, saw an eight per cent overall decrease in the last quarter.
Mischief to property 鈥� including things like broken windows 鈥� were the largest category, at 237 reported incidents, followed by 187 thefts from vehicles, 91 auto thefts, and 89 business break and enters. There were 35 residential break and enters and 35 other types of break and enters.
Marsden fielded some questions from council about catalytic converter thefts and speeding, and noted a number of projects the local RCMP has undertaken or will be undertaking in the future.
That includes recent speed crackdowns on 16 Avenue in South 91原创, and use of provincial Special Investigation and Targeted Enforcement (SITE) funding to add extra shifts, which resulted in 20 arrests, four gun seizures, and recovery of a number of items of stolen property, among other results.
