By Taylor MacPherson

Crime moved from alcohol to meth in 2016: Police Chief

Apr 25, 2017 | 10:00 AM

Alcohol related incidents may have been down last year, but it didn’t translate into a drop in crime.

Police Chief Troy Cooper said the progress made with alcohol in 2016 was largely cancelled out by the uptick in crystal meth use, and the resulting increases in violence and property crimes.

The shift in the criminal element’s drug of choice was reflected in the department’s 2016 annual report, which Cooper presented to the Board of Police Commissioners Monday. The stats show alcohol-related crime dropped significantly, but as the addicted population put down the bottle in favour of the pipe, drug-related crimes including violence became more common.

“I don’t think we have more drug users in the community; I think they switched to a drug that’s more highly addictive. [A drug] that’s more prone to issues around mental health and violence,” Cooper said.

Intoxicated person arrests fell by almost 22 per cent last year and calls for disturbances also declined, showing significant progress was made. In contrast, the police issued 285 drug charges last year compared to just 182 in 2015, and firearm seizures doubled over the same period. Property-crime enforcement was also up, as police charged 617 people with break-and-enter crimes last year compared to 500 in 2015.

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Despite a significant statistical change in several areas, the department’s overall call volume stayed largely the same between 2015 and 2016, which Cooper said shows a change in the types of crimes being committed rather than a rise in the overall crime rate.

“The calls that we took last year around violence were increasing, the calls around property crime were increasing as drug use increased,” Cooper told paNOW, “but that was balanced because of the decreased calls for service around alcohol [and] public intoxication.”

Cooper said crystal meth is one of the most damaging drugs to a community as it contributes directly to property crimes and violence, but noted police have been able to direct more resources towards combatting the drug due to the decline in alcohol-related crimes.

The Police Service has identified community health as one of their top strategic priorities for the coming years, which Cooper said means officers will be even more proactively fighting drug crime by targeting the social causes of addictions.

“Now that we have less calls for service around alcohol we’re able to do more work with things like gangs and guns and drugs and other root-cause issues,” he said.

Taylor.macpherson@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @TMacPhersonNews