Despite July to September calls for service being up 20 per cent over last summer, Kimberley RCMP officials say this does not mean a jump in crime rates.
Kimberley RCMP Detachment Commander Sgt Steve Woodcox says they normally see an increase in calls during the summer months.
“When it comes down to numbers, there could be more traffic complaints and that would skew the numbers and bring that up,” explained Woodcox.
“Depending on what the calls are, it doesn’t necessarily indicate that crime was up. Just calls to the police in general were up.”
The Kimberley detachment received around 500 calls to service from July to Sept. in 2023, while calls reached 595 this summer. Police officials said 13 charge reports were forwarded to Cranbrook Crown Council for approval.
Woodcox says dangerous and intoxicated driving are common issues throughout the summer months.
“With the summer months comes increased traffic. Unfortunately, sometimes people get very impatient when they’re waiting in traffic and they decide to pass where they’re not supposed to and drive aggressively,” said Woodcox.
“Those incidents in the summer will sometimes skew the numbers and that higher number is because of that.”
Kimberley RCMP continued its traffic enforcement around the city and stopped over 350 vehicles and issued over 80 violation tickets.
Woodcox says Kimberley typically has very little criminal activity.
“Crime in Kimberley is very low compared to other centres of the same population. From time to time, we’ll see a spike and if that happens within a day or two, that could mean someone has come to town and committed some crimes,” said Woodcox.
“Whether that’s theft from vehicles or some minor theft, that might cause a little bump for a couple of days, but overall Kimberley is a very safe place to be.”
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