Christine Kay
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Nov 18/02) - The Iqaluit RCMP detachment released a crime report for September last week. Staff Sgt. Ed North described criminal activity in Iqaluit, "as not too bad of a picture, but it could be better."

One of his main areas of concern surrounds incidents related to youth.

There were 176 youth-related crimes committed between January and September of this year. For the same period in 2001, there were only 128 incidents recorded.

"We have to put some programs in place to deal with youth. That's one of my main priorities," said North.

Another concern is liquor-related crime. If the numbers provided by RCMP are correct, they have nearly doubled. North said he's not sure if the numbers are a result of better record keeping by officers or an actual increase in occurrences.

Between January and September 2001, there were 644 liquor-related incidents. Between January and September 2002, there were 1,208 reported cases.

On a positive note, North said the number of assaults and suicides are down so far this year.

To make sure other crime statistics go down as well, police are forming a consulting committee in the near future. Youth, business owners, elders and other concerned citizens will sit on the committee.