The Drumheller RCMP detachment released its crime stats for the first three months of 2022 for both the Town of Drumheller and the provincial detachment area, which includes the villages of Carbon, Delia, Morrin and Munson and the hamlets of Dalum, Rosebud, and Rumsey.
Within the local municipal boundaries, the number of overall criminal offenses was down compared to the previous year, though there were some increases in the rural detachment areas.
“This is a combination of enhanced patrols and community engagement patrols, as well as calls from the public,” Drumheller RCMP Staff Sergeant Ed Bourque tells the Mail.
He shares the detachment has continued to conduct more patrols and compliance checks over the last quarter. This has resulted in an increase number of failure to comply and breach cases compared to previous years, in both the municipal and provincial detachment areas.
In the municipal detachment area, these patrols have resulted in an increase from nine total cases in 2021 to 23 in 2022-an increase of 156 per cent; the rural detachment area has also seen an increase of 800 per cent, from two cases in 2021 to a total of 18 in 2022.
Due to the relatively low number of offenses in the local detachment area this may seem like a drastic increase on paper, but S/Sgt Bourque says this does not necessarily reflect a severe increase in crimes.
He notes, compared to detachment areas with larger populations, even a single additional case in a given quarter can create an inflated increase of 100 per cent.
One area where this can be seen is in the total number of offenses against a person in the rural detachment areas.
While this has increased 200 per cent over the previous year, this increase has realistically gone from six cases in 2021 to 18 in 2022. S/Sgt Bourque says this increase is due to a combination of increased patrols, but does say the detachment also received more domestic calls in the last quarter which has contributed to this increase.
