Inspector Robert Lake of the Williams Lake RCMP, updated city council on the 2024 crime stats at the regular council meeting on April 1.
Presenting to the mayor and council at city hall, Lake shed some light on the work of the Williams Lake RCMP.
There were 10,204 calls for service in the Williams Lake RCMP coverage area between Jan. 1, 2024 and Dec. 31, 2024.
Lake said 71 per cent were within city limits and 29 per cent were outside the city in the surrounding rural areas.
This was a decrease of 362 calls from 2023. Total calls to service for the year has been trending downward in the past five years, with RCMP responding to 11,655 calls in 2020.
Lake's report to council highlighted some other trends, including Controlled Drugs and Substances Act offences.
Drug trafficking offences increased from 47 in 2023 to 61 in 2024, an increase of 29 per cent.
The number of impaired driving offences also increased from 73 in 2023 to 103 in 2024. This is a more than 40 per cent increase in impaired driving offences.
But Lake said these increases are due to targeted crime reduction strategies the senior levels of management at the detachment have implemented.
“We want to see those numbers go down, we’re going to continue that strategy this year,” he said.
There was a decrease in property offences overall, going from 1,393 calls related to property offences in 2023 to 1,169 in 2024, a decrease of over 16 per cent.
Another promising statistic was a drop in theft from motor vehicles. These offences went from 180 in 2023 to 73 in 2024, a drop of more than 59 per cent.
Fraud offences increased over 10 per cent, from 143 in 2023 to 159 offences in 2024.
Break and enters to businesses were also down nearly 25 per cent, dropping from 82 in 2023 to 62 in 2024, while break and enters reported at residences were up over 44 per cent, with 29 in 2023 and 42 in 2024.
Lake did express concern over this increase and said the RCMP will put a focus on addressing these break ins on residences.
After giving his report, he fielded questions from council members, with Coun. Scott Nelson asking how many "prolific offenders" in the city were outfitted with GPS tracking.
Lake did not have those numbers, as this is not an RCMP responsibility, but would fall under Corrections Canada.
Nelson asked Lake to include the numbers in future reports.
Inspector Lake also highlighted some specific cases of interest for the council, sharing seven different vehicle stops leading to drug seizures and other illegal items like illegal cigarettes and weapons and large quantities of cash.
He said the collaboration between crime prevention task force staff, and other additional resources like the BC Highway Patrol, which are not municipally funded, but based at the detachment, have been a major benefit to the local detachment.
