Property crime down
Theft is down in Morinville, and that means the RCMP’s crime-busting strategies are working, says the town’s top cop.
Sgt. Chris Palfy of the Morinville RCMP briefed town council on the state of crime in town March 12.
Crime statistics he presented showed total crime in Morinville dropped about three per cent last year to about 752 reported Criminal Code offences (the five-year average was 739).
Property crime dropped to its second-lowest level in five years with 364 cases, or about 16 per cent less than 2017. Thefts, fraud, break-and-enters, and mischief to property were all down, while arson and possession of stolen goods were unchanged.
In an interview, Palfy credited the RCMP’s recent focus on intelligence gathering, prolific offenders, targeted patrols of hot spots, and public education through lock-it-or-lose it campaigns for this drop.
“I believe what we are doing is working.”
Palfy told council the PROS Data Centre (a service piloted at Morinville last year that lets officers phone in reports instead of driving back to the office to file) had saved officers “thousands” of hours that they could now spend on patrol instead of at their desks typing up reports.
Persons-related crime rose about five per cent last year to 155 cases, Palfy’s report suggests – almost dead-on average for the last five years.
Coun. Sarah Hall noted with concern that there were 17 cases of sexual assault reported – up from 10 in 2017 and a five-year high.
“Any number of these is always a bad thing,” Palfy said, but he didn’t find these sexual assault numbers to be exceptionally high. He hoped this spike was the result of assault victims being more willing to report to the police.
Last year also saw a five-year high for uttered threats with 34 cases (the five-year average was 28). Palfy said the RCMP were seeing more threats delivered through social media, which was actually convenient for prosecutors, as social media provides written records of those threats.
Palfy’s report is available in the agenda package for the March 12 council meeting.
More sponsorship wrangling
Town council is set to take another look at its sponsorship policy, with one councillor calling for an end to the sponsorship fund altogether.
Council sent its draft sponsorship policy back to committee of the whole last week.
Town council has for many years now wrestled with how to support athletes and community groups, particularly when it comes to whether that support should come from its community grant or council sponsorship funds.
Council handed off control of the community grants to administration in 2016 but still decides how to use its sponsorship fund (which this year contains $5,000).
Council asked for a draft policy for that fund and reviewed it at committee of the whole last month. The policy, if approved, would let council set the size of the sponsorship fund and sponsor specific community events, activities, groups, or people, but leave most sponsorship decisions in the hands of administration (much like they currently handle community grants).
Hall and Coun. Nicole Boutestein said that this would no longer be a council sponsorship fund if administration controlled it. Coun. Rebecca Balanko said council would miss out on chances to connect with community groups if it let administration handle this fund.
Coun. Stephen Dafoe wanted this fund scrapped altogether and said its purposes were already covered through council’s community grant, public relations and economic development funds. Council needed to focus on bigger-picture items.
“It isn’t about council’s ego. It’s about ensuring the right people have the right funds.”
