Police respond to an incident in the Southview area in this undated file photo. Insp. Brett Secondiak says MHPS members responded to a low number of calls for service this past long weekend, a trend he'd like to see continue.--NEWS FILE PHOTO
rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken
Medicine Hat Police Service responded to 254 calls for service over the August long weekend – a notable drop from both last summer and last month.
MHPS Insp. Brent Secondiak says that number is 53 fewer than the previous Friday-to-Monday (307), and 99 fewer than July 17-20 (353), while 316 calls for service were received during August long weekend in 2019.
“It was down this weekend,” said Secondiak, adding the only notable event was the death of a 31-year-old man who was swept away by the current of the South Saskatchewan River when he reportedly attempted to swim across it near downtown. “It was just relatively calm. I went through the calls and there was nothing out of the ordinary. We did have, of course, resources tied up on that tragic death in the river … Generally, I think some people were camping or just staying at home. We didn’t have anything astronomically crazy that went out of hand other than that death in the river.”
Secondiak says the 254 calls were mostly comprised of mental health calls for services, complaints of intoxicated and suspicious persons, driving and vehicle complaints and bylaw complaints relating to noise.
“It seemed rather standard for a weekend in the summer,” he said.
Secondiak added there have still been no charges laid under provincial or federal COVID-19 legislation in Medicine Hat, a trend he hopes continues as the fall approaches.
“We’ve still had no charges … which is outstanding. Generally, people are very compliant with us, they seem to be understanding about the rules that are in place and generally the community seems to be doing quite well,” he said. “We just want the community to continue this kind of behaviour going forward. It’s always a little busier during the summer for us but it seems to be manageable at this point.”
