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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
RCMP saw a sharp rise in criminal record checks, traffic collisions, and some criminal code offences in January, said Insp. Dave Elliott during a city council municipal services committee this week.

Although January was otherwise "pretty much normal," Elliott told council there were increases in these areas among the 925 calls RCMP answered last month.

Elliott presented the January statistics to the committee on Monday.

Criminal record checks, which are combined with a number of items in the monthly report under "other common police activities," underwent a significant increase, he said.

Elliott showed that this item, which also includes RCMP dealings with fingerprinting, abandoned vehicles, suspicious persons, animal calls, false alarms, items lost and found, and escorting prisoners, was up to 548 from 335 last month and 96 at the same time last year.

Of those 548 items, 275 represented criminal record checks, which Elliott had brought to the attention of council in December.

"A lot of it is an increase in criminal record checks, which is taking up a lot of our time," he said.

As well, an item in the report marked "other criminal code offences" experienced an increase to 259 from 60.

This item includes disturbing the peace, which Elliott said is often associated with intoxication and yelling and screaming in public.

"I think a lot of the increase was because of the (warmer) weather and that last January (in 2011) was more of a traditional one, since it was a lot colder," he said. "The weather will make a difference as there are not as many people outside."

There was also an increase in traffic accidents also saw a large increase, with 41 this year versus the 27 from this time last year. In December there were 30.

"We definitely saw a big increase, but the number is starting to come down now," he said. "January was a bad month for slippery road conditions."

Elliott also said in his presentation that the RCMP is beginning its "planning cycle," which is a formal document that lays out special crime prevention areas the police would like to focus on during the fiscal year.

He said the RCMP is seeking to gain as much community input as possible regarding what problems need to be addressed that they may not have been previously aware of. In past years, the RCMP has used such information to create school crime prevention programs, focus on bike patrols, or to accommodate search and rescue training among officers.

"So, if there are any concerns or anything we should be looking at, please let us know through the policing committee," said Elliott.

The public can also send issues of concern to the RCMP office or to his office directly. Police remain open to hearing from Ndilo and Dettah citizens with issues that affect them, he said.

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