Crime returns to levels seen before the pandemic as province relaunches.--NEWS FILE PHOTO
rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken See related story: https://medicinehatnews.com/news/local-news/2020/05/26/calls-for-service-back-up-and-keeping-city-police-busy/
Crime statistics in Medicine Hat are returning to their previous levels after a significant dip in criminal activity as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Medicine Hat Police Service Insp. Brent Secondiak says the trend seems to be in line with the roll-out of the provincial government’s relaunch strategy and he expects numbers to be back to normal levels in the coming weeks.
“Generally, we’ve been very impressed with the city and the response – everyone was really well behaved – but it seems to be returning to kind of normal levels since March,” said Secondiak. “I think more and more people are out on the streets, more businesses are open. It’s not back up to peak levels yet, but undoubtedly it will be over the next few weeks.”
While the bulk of crime statistics in the city took a dip, Secondiak says shoplifting was “peaking higher than ever” as a result of COVID-19 – but a proactive response from MHPS helped curb those numbers as the pandemic progressed.
“Since there was nothing else to do, I think they were just going to some of these retailers and trying to commit some type of theft or fraud, things of that nature. There have always been food services available, the food bank has been open the whole time, so I think lack of food is not a reasonable excuse,” said Secondiak. “We had proactive strategies to try and put marked vehicles in front of many retailers, big box stores and a lot of smaller, locally owned stores as well. That was very effective, it reduced a lot of calls.”
Domestic abuse calls took an initial dip when the pandemic hit as well, but Secondiak says they too have been trending back toward normal levels in recent weeks.
“They’re kind of fluctuating, but we have about 20 domestic violence calls per week and they seem to have gone up, same with mental health calls,” he said, adding none of the city’s crime statistics seem to be on track to exceed normal levels. “I don’t think we see that at this point. The numbers haven’t indicated they’re going to be over and above what they have been in the past.”
Traffic volume significantly decreased with thousands of Hatters working from home and many businesses closed to the public, however Secondiak says speeding seemed to spike in response to the open roads.
“We had a substantial decrease in traffic volumes when COVID hit and it’s still reduced slightly. I think what we did note was that speeding increased. And some of the numbers, some of the outliers, were extremely high so we did have our traffic unit and patrol officers focusing on speeding, and it was excessive speed,” he said. “They weren’t stopping vehicles for slightly over the limit, they had to be substantially over the limit. I think that’s curtailed a lot of the excessive speeding.”
As for concerns related to COVID-19, like parties and other large public gatherings, Secondiak says MHPS has received a number of complaints with warmer weather, but haven’t needed to lay any charges under new Chief Medical Officer of Health orders regarding social distancing.
“We did have complaints of gatherings, but I’m happy to report that we have had no breaches of the order as of yet,” he said. “Our general premise has been to educate people rather than to enforce. Everyone we’ve spoken to up to this point in time has been really understanding.
“Where we saw a potential breach, we’ve had conversations with those people and there have been no charges under the Chief Medical Officer of Health orders up to this point. I’m very pleased with the community because of that. We’ve had warnings with people on parks and playgrounds and skate parks and stuff of that nature, but it seems generally to be going well.”
