By Nigel Maxwell

P.A. police focused on reducing crime

Jul 28, 2011 | 6:41 AM

According to June figures, overall crime in Prince Albert is down compared to the same period in 2010.

There was a nearly a 14 per cent drop for general occurrences.

There are however a number of problem areas. The number of sexual assaults was up almost 12 per cent and incidents reported for drug trafficking, jumped nearly 48 per cent.

“We don't know if the actual true numbers are up or whether it's the number of reported cases that are up,” said Sgt. Kelly McLean with the Prince Albert Police Service.

He adds that there has also been stricter enforcement, specifically in the drug trafficking area.

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“We have a couple of specialized units and we work in conjunction with the RCMP. We have really ratcheted up enforcement on that in the last several years. I can confidently say that the guys and gals that are working those sections had a very successful year last year and you will probably see that number increase again this year, specifically through targeted enforcement,” McLean said.

He said Prince Albert is a bit of an anomaly as 35 to 40 per cent of the incidents are committed by people who don't live in the city.

“We are one of the busiest police services in western Canada and we continue to struggle and to try to maintain the level of service to our community, but when the opportunity presents itself where we can go out and we can target specific crime categories, we will continue to do that,” McLean said.

According to a recent report from Statistics Canada, Prince Albert moved up last year for overall crime severity. In the category of cities with a population with at least 10,000, Prince Albert was ranked fourth.

“We have to remember too that the community for example of Quesnel, BC dropped under 10,000 people for the last reporting year. They had very high statistics as well, but now they have dropped out of the reporting category, so automatically Prince Albert moved up,” said McLean.

McLean said overall crime in 2010 was actually down compared to 2009.

“Are we happy with that number? No, we are not happy with that number. We're not (going to) be happy with that number until we are solidly out of the Top 10. And we continue to work hard to drive that number down,” said McLean.

nmaxwell@panow.com