RCMP Superintendent Warren Brown presented the 2017 Year in Review for the Prince George RCMP at Monday’s regular council meeting.
Over the last year, PG RCMP saw 43,973 calls for service, which is over 2,000 more than the next closest yearly total since 2008.
Brown attributes this to property crimes, missing persons, nuisance offences, and even the wildfires.
“We also saw, which correlated with the wildfires this summer, quite a large increase in population in our community,” he explains.
“I believe it was about a 10% increase in criminal offences during that period of time and a large number of those people continue to stay and live in our community.”
This is seen as a negative but there were also many positives from the report.
One of which was the RCMP’s ability to sustain the workforce, which was one area Brown says they focused on.
Another positive was the work of the Major Crimes Unit, despite the negative circumstances.
“Albeit very unfortunate, we’ve arrested and prosecuted quite a few people for homicide,” says Brown.
“So we’ve had three trials in 2017 for first-degree murder and we’ve got another one starting in February so our major crimes actions have done exceptional work.”
The report also outlines work done by the Safe City Roads Program.
Key statistics from that show 969 speeding tickets issued, 12 distracted driving charges all pertaining to cellphone use, and two 24-hour suspensions due to impaired driving.