The St. Albert RCMP are worried they may not be getting a full picture of crime in the community and are asking the public to call more.
After several recent incidents of theft, police have talked to neighbours who heard or saw something suspicious but didn’t called the police, said RCMP Cpl. Laurel Kading.
“Often the impression we are getting is that people think they are going to be bothering us or it is late and they don’t want to bother us,” she said.
Kading emphasized that the police are there at all hours to take these calls.
“We would rather get the call even if it turns out to be nothing,” she said.
Kading said they are also concerned that people aren’t reporting certain crimes, especially cases of thefts from vehicles.
She added that knowing where the crimes are happening is important to police.
“We monitor our statistics here on an ongoing basis and sort of target where we are going to concentrate on our enforcement based on these statistics,” she said.
Police sometimes get confessions to crimes that have never been reported.
“There have been times where we have arrested a person who actually admits to a whole variety of crimes occurring and often we can’t match it to reports to us,” she said.
The city has seen 428 thefts from vehicles this year, a dramatic dip from last year’s 735. Police believe those numbers show a legitimate trend, but because the crime is underreported it is hard to know conclusively, Kading said.
She said a break-in to one person’s vehicle might seem minor, but in the bigger picture it is a significant problem.
“If each break-in resulted in only $10 being stolen, that is $4,280 stolen from the community of St. Albert and we know that the thefts are worth far more than that,” she said.
Police complaints can go to either 780-458-7700 or to 911.
