Claresholm town council updated on activities of RCMP

By Rob Vogt
The Claresholm RCMP were busy from April to June, involved in a wide variety of activities.
Corporal Tom Nairn, acting detachment commander for the Claresholm RCMP, appeared as a delegation at Claresholm town council’s Sept. 11 meeting to provide his quarterly report.
He opened by mentioning the RCMP App, which looks at trends, provides crime statistics, and an opportunity to report crime.
Nairn said the RCMP have been encouraging people to use the app to report non-urgent crime.
He then discussed the presentations he and his members have done in schools; at seniors’ homes on fraud prevention; and when they have appeared at community functions in their red serge.
Nairn turned his attention to the detachment’s priorities.
They are enhancing road safety; crime reduction; communicating effectively; and drug enforcement.
Nairn noted with speeding and enforcement, 70 tickets were issued for speeding and other moving violations out of a yearly goal of 250 tickets.
“We’re off to a lot better start than last year,” he said, attributing that to the fact all the members are now trained on photo radar.
Another Operation Street Sweep was conducted, this one on the May long weekend. This time two members were brought in on overtime over a two-day period to do speeding and traffic enforcement. This yielded more than 30 speeding and cell-phone related violation tickets.
Regarding drug enforcement, two drug enforcement investigations were completed with one investigation resulting in a large sum of heavy illicit drugs being taken off the street and charges laid against an individual.
It involved a vehicle stop in town where a member found a substantial amount of fentanyl in the vehicle.
Nairn then discussed crime statistics.
He observed they look good for this quarter.
“I can attest we had a pretty good summer,” he said.
The numbers reveal a five percent reduction in total Criminal Code violations; and a 20 percent reduction in persons crimes, which include assault, uttering threats, and criminal harassment.
There was a 25 percent reduction in property crimes and other Criminal Code matters, which include mischief and causing a disturbance.
There was an increase in provincial code traffic, but Nairn pointed out that is a good thing because it shows the members are going out, writing tickets and doing proactive work.
There was also a 467 percent increase in municipal bylaw complaints. Nairn attributed that to two houses in the area notorious for loud parties who accumulated noise complaints, as well as people having fires during the fire ban.
“They were warned and warned,” Nairn said. “Our next step is to take enforcement action.”
He then looked at staffing. Claresholm has five constables, with the sergeant and corporal positions currently vacant.
A new sergeant is starting on Oct. 2, and the process is under way to fill the corporal position.
Nairn also pointed out the Claresholm detachment is still hubbing with Nanton, where they have a common shift schedule. However, Nanton is now down a member as Constable Ken Jones has been transferred to Vulcan.
Nairn concluded by saying he hoped the detachment should be fully staffed soon.
He then welcomed questions.
Coun. Mike Cutler asked if crime will increase come the Fall?
Nairn responded the last two weeks he has noticed a lot of property crime in the area. Much of that is likely due to an individual who was released from jail and is back in the area, so it is being dealt with, as Nairn has called the Southern Alberta crime reduction unit to assist.