By Kellah Lavoie

Crime on par for 2010

Jan 2, 2011 | 10:36 AM

It was a busy year for Prince Albert police.

Chief Dale Mcfee said while the numbers aren’t in yet the statistics look very similar to last year.

“There is a slight increase in some areas, you know, things that are of concern are property crimes, break and enters, just wilful damages that have no rhyme or reason. Certainly when I talk break and enters significant portion of those are sheds or other properties, often not locked.”

He said a number of crimes that took place in the city were crimes of opportunity.

“It does show us that we have a lot of work to do,” he said.

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“It’s going to take more than just enforcement.”

He called Prince Albert an anomaly. If things do not change in the city, in the next eight years the number of calls per capita will double.

At the end of November the number of general occurrences was up 6.4 per cent from 2009 and tickets issued jumped 15.6 per cent. The number of total calls dropped 1.3 per cent.

He said Prince Albert has high rates of domestic violence, youth violence, alcohol issues, Hepatitis C, HIV, unemployment and suicide.

“(Domestic abuse) is pretty consistent, and what I mean by consistent is way too high.”

With already putting about 88 per cent of their budget towards paying salaries, they need to come up with new ways of doing things aside from hiring new officers.

McFee said it is the reason they went to Scotland in the fall – to go to a community with a similar issues and come up with answers.

To see statistics for 2010 click here.

klavoie@panow.com