By Stephanie Froese

Fair week quiet for police

Aug 9, 2011 | 5:03 PM

Police had quite a public presence during the summer fair and the numbers seem to show just that.

The Prince Albert Police Service has released statistics on the first week of august over the past six years.

This year police saw the lowest number of valid calls since 2006 and an over 25 per cent drop since 2008.

This drop in numbers comes in the same year Dave Young with the Prince Albert Exhibition Association is reporting a higher than average attendance.

It’s hard to pinpoint an exact reason for the decrease said Sgt. Jason Stonechild.

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“I would love to tell you that it’s because you’ve got an excellent police service in the city, but it could be for a number of varying reasons, but it is a significant drop,” Stonechild said.

The police service increases foot patrol at the exhibition grounds each year during the fair week.

“I worked one of the shifts there Saturday night and there was a bad storm there that night, so it ended peacefully, but we had an additional staff of six members that were working there, which is a pretty good presence in addition to the security company that works there.”

The overall calls for service were higher than the past two years but Stonechild said not every call requires officers to investigate. He said the drop in numbers refers to calls that could potentially end in charges.

sfroese@panow.com