Police chief says COVID affected crime stats
By KELLEN TANIGUCHI on May 29, 2021.
ktaniguchi@medicinehatnews.com@@kellentaniguchi The Medicine Hat Police Service released its 2020 report and chief Mike Worden says certain numbers in the report were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. “For us it’s had significant impacts on the way that we provide services for the public and at this point how it’s impacted the number of calls and the number of calls per incident,” said Worden. “For example, the increase in fraud is yet to be determined but we do know that the COVID environment we’ve seen across the province and country the presence of fraud type calls have increased significantly.” Fraud calls have more than doubled over the last two years according to the report. Domestic violence files have increased by 29 per cent, an area Worden says has increased province-wide throughout the pandemic. “That’s a concerning trend for us and it’s something we’re ensuring we resource properly and that we work well with our partners and the women’s shelters in Medicine Hat. Those are partnerships that are integral to addressing these issues,” he said. There was a large increase in fentanyl seizures by the MHPS in 2020. There was a total 165 grams of powder seized in 2019, with a large increase to 701 grams this past year. “The increase of fentanyl and fentanyl trafficking is a concern for us and putting concentrated efforts into our investigative teams to investigate that is a priority for us,” he said. “We just know the impact it has on the community and the danger, often life-taking dangers, of fentanyl, overdoses and opioids, all of those things there’s a bit of a crisis now across the country with these issues,” said Worden. Worden adds the increase in fentanyl seizures could be seen as a good thing because they know they’re working toward crime reduction in that area, but it also means there is a large prevalence of fentanyl in the community. Possession for the purpose of trafficking drugs also increased by 19 per cent in 2020. There were 5,216 bylaw complaints investigated – a decrease of 21 per cent likely due to COVID-19 restrictions. However, noise complaint calls were up 46 per cent, which Worden says is most likely due to people working from home and being home more often. Worden says the piloting of the Regional Property Crime Unit was a success – a unit launched with funding by the Alberta government. The unit included the MHPS, the RCMP and ALERT-funded members with a mandate of targeting property crime offenders in the south east region of the province. The unit finished 2020 with 143 files resulting in 158 arrests and 590 charges. More than $740,000 in stolen goods were recovered as well as roughly $43,000 worth of drugs and 85 firearms. 13-12
