Legal crime rate lower than expected over summer

By MorinvilleNews.com Staff

Legal – Morinville RCMP Staff Sergeant Mac Richards and Sergeant Mark Mathias brought Legal Town Council up to speed on crime in the community over the summer. Richards told mayor and council the July to September period is traditionally the busiest of the year; however, this year RCMP members were not as busy in the community.

“The summer months, which historically have been the largest for crime, really didn’t pan out that way,” Richards said, noting it was quieter this year than in previous years. The staff sergeant said the detachment did not see the large increases in crime they expected. “For a summer period, that is very good.”

The RCMP identified several areas for this year with an emphasis on property crime. To that end, Richards said he was pleased. Legal had no reported thefts from vehicles over the summer, and only six this year to date. Vandalism was also lower than normal. Six instances were reported over the quarter, 13 to date. The four year average in Legal is 18 instances of vandalism.

Total calls for service to Legal totalled 78 between July to September, a number that was 10 calls fewer than the second quarter of 2011.

The RCMP have put a stronger emphasis on traffic matters this year. Richards said response to issuing tickets in town has been both positive and negative from residents, the combination something the staff sergeant takes as a positive with respect to policing.

Fête relatively peaceful

Council heard this year’s Fête au Village was relatively easy to manage from a policing perspective, largely due to the poor weather conditions.

“With the camp ground being flooded out, it meant there was no foot traffic between two sites, which greatly reduces problems,” Sergeant Mathias said. “The arena created a controlled environment and reduced the free flow of people. The fact it was indoors made it a much more manageable event and a safer event of the community. There just wasn’t the milling around of drunks.”

Mathias said there were two arrests during the Fête au Village weekend, both were intoxicated individuals involved in a fight.

The Morinville RCMP provides a quarterly statistical update to councils in the communities they police.

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