RCMP present quarterly report to council

Shannon LeClair

Times Reporter

 

Strathmore RCMP Staff Sgt. Larry Marzinzik was at council on Nov. 2 to present the quarterly report, which saw a number of increases in some of the objectives. He said the numbers for charges laid in town have increased by 190 per cent in regards to for traffic enforcement and education.

Marzinzik said the hope was to try to reduce the numbers for the amount of mischief and vandalism, which unfortunately didn’t pan out. 

“It’s actually, over the last quarter risen by 54 per cent so that’s quite alarming over the summer time,” said Marzinzik.

“A lot of that had to do with the spray painting incidents that we’re all aware of. There have lately been a few charges laid with reference to some of those incidents and they’re before the court right now.”

Theft has also increased by 36 per cent and is something the RCMP is trying to analyze in areas of town. 

Marzinzik said there haven’t been particular areas that have been hit, and that the thefts seem to affect random areas throughout town, rather than targeting one specific area. He said 80 per cent of the kids wandering the streets aren’t the ones causing the thefts.

“It’s not always the 13, 14-year-olds that are out at two in the morning. Sometimes they just have idle time on their hands and they’re wandering, they’re not the ones actually responsible for the theft,” said Marzinzik.

In recent years the RCMP had a decrease of thefts in town and Marzinzik said the increase could be a sign of a normal fluctuation between the number of occurances.  

“In reference to drugs, our charges in the last quarter are up 100 per cent, so the enforcement is happening. Our actual reported incidents are up 158 per cent and that has a lot to do with intelligence files coming in to us…that we’re developing information in regards to obtaining search warrants that sort of thing,” said Marzinzik. 

“I would say on the drug enforcement side that’s good because we’re are bringing a lot more people involved specifically in the production and trafficking of drugs to the court.” 

The Strathmore RCMP has 16 members and every member is investigating, on average, 280 files in a two-quarter period. When it was pointed out there seem to be significant increases to some of the objectives Marzinzik wasn’t to concerned, and said it some cases it is a good thing. 

“Are our numbers out of control, I guess when you have any type of crime it’s out of control for that member of the community that’s affected,” said Marzinzik.

“But I would say that the numbers are showing we’re running the same in comparison to other communities our size with reference to those types of incidents, expect in the area of drugs where we’re putting a lot of effort and we’ve done that for the last three or four years.”

In the case of drug enforcement Marzinzik said the RCMP are not only trying to find the youth who are in possession, but are also trying to hunt down the person supplying the product to the youth.