Since January of this year, crime is down in the Grande Prairie area. RCMP Superintendent Don McKenna explains that although mischief is up, robberies have been cut in half and theft of motor vehicles are also down.
McKenna says the officers have been more efficient with tackling crime because of computer statistics being gathered quicker and more orderly.
“Now it is much more nimble. We are getting our statistics in a fashion that are easy to read and easy to understand. We are also targeting those who are doing the crimes.”
They have been able to be proactive in their approach to crime which includes the addition of the RCMP Crime Reduction Unit and Drug Unit in the city.
“Some of our habitual offenders, the one that we know have committed those crimes and the ones we have on court conditions, we are going to go knock on their door. We will say “are you home? if so, great” and “I will be back”.”
McKenna says in years prior, the detachment was in reactive mode as they were solely responding to crime and not much more.
On top of theft of vehicles down, there also hasn’t been any homicides since January 2017. In 2016, there were three and seven in 2015.