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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Police statistics presented to council last week indicate violent crime is down compared to last year but mayor-elect Mark Heyck isn't backing away from his proposal for city-hired RCMP officers to police the downtown.

RCMP Staff Sgt. Colin White, making his first presentation to council at the Oct. 22 municipal services committee meeting since become the detachment commander earlier this fall, told council that despite a perception in the community that violent crime - particularly downtown - is getting worse, the number of all categories of assaults is down compared to last year.

According to the RCMP, there were 61 reported assaults in September. This figure is down from the 104 reported in September last year. If the current trend continues, said White, there will be far fewer assaults at the end of this year. There have been 801 - 89 per month - recorded this year so far, but in 2011 there were 1,441, or 120 per month. The RCMP report that the number of overall calls they have received this year, however, is slightly up at 1,215 per month compared to 1,205 a month last year.

"You never know what the last quarter is going to be like and things could go wonky, but at the present time, generally speaking, assaults in all categories are down compared to last year, so far," White said.

Police aren't concluding that the city is safer based on these trends, however. Two major assault cases - an aggravated assault and sexual assault - in September, as well as municipal politicking during the election period could have given a perception that Yellowknife is more dangerous than it really is.

"One or two serious cases like those can have an emotional or psychological effect on people in the community and can affect their perception on how safe the community is," said White. "Even though our total numbers in a lot of different categories are trending down, all it takes is one or two major cases reported well in the paper to make people think things are going really bad."

Heyck said he wants to look into the city hiring RCMP officers to specifically address crime issues in the downtown core. He said the latest statistics are positive but represent just a snapshot in time.

"You never know," Heyck said, when asked if the statistics could impact whether more police officers are needed or not. "It is a snapshot in time so things could go up again. There are larger issues related to crime and some social issues that will need addressing regardless."

He agrees with White that high-profile cases, such as a reported sexual assault on a 15-year-old girl last month, may have heightened the perception of more violent crimes occurring.

"When there is an assault that has publicity it does heighten the issue in people's minds," Heyck said. "But we have been hearing issues like this for many years now. I would suspect that this is an ongoing issue until it is addressed."

In other crime areas, there have been 139 calls for break-and-enters in 2012 up until the end of September, and 273 for all of 2011.

Impaired driving charges appear to be way down too, with 222 reported occurrences so far this year but 402 last year. Other crimes, like drug trafficking, however, are way up - 166 this year compared to 104 for all of last year.

City councillor Cory Vanthuyne called the figures "seemingly very impressive" but "peripheral" and asked White what factors could account for the decrease in violent crimes.

"The bottom line is that I can't account for that," said White. "Based on past experience, there could be many reasons why it is down. I have noticed from other places where I have been stationed that if economic activity is down in the community, generally the crime activity goes down with it."

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