Crimes against people are up in 2019, Thompson RCMP Staff Sgt. Chris Hastie told the city’s public safety committee at their Nov. 14 meeting.
There have been 65 sexual assaults reported in the first 10 months of this year compared to 45 in the same period last year, while incidents of uttering threats have more than doubled from 63 to 137, mostly as a result of more complaints from the public.
“That is of concern,” Hastie said.
Traffic offences are up by almost 400 files over the first 10 months of last year, to a total of 968 up to the end of this October. A good deal of that increase is attributed to the fact that the Thompson RCMP detachment now has one member devoted to traffic enforcement.
Impaired driving is also up this year, with 62 more incidents than in the first 10 month of October. Three suspected impaired drivers were charged over the weekend prior to the meeting, including one who ran several stop signs in the Juniper and Deerwood areas with police following them, another found parked at a residence in the Juniper area and a drug-impaired driver who went into the ditch on the highway just outside of town.
The number of search warrants executed so far in 2019 is on par with last year, as are the number of curfew checks on people with court-imposed curfews. Missing persons cases are down slightly, but RCMP still receive about six to eight missing persons reports nightly, some involving youth in care who have not returned home by their curfew.
The detachment’s general investigation section continues to make significant drug busts, Hastie said, despite consisting of only a few members. One recent bust netted a kilogram of cocaine, worth $60,000 or more, while $15,000 in cash was seized during a recent search of a Deerwood area residence.
“They target people that are involved in organized crime,” Hastie said. “It disrupts the organized crime.”
