Crime continues to come down in Williams Lake...

From the City of Williams Lake:

Crime dropped dramatically in 2010, with calls for service down four per
cent from 2009 and 30 per cent from 2008.

Statistics from the Williams Lake RCMP detachment show that in 2010,
there was an average decrease of thefts of vehicles of 34 per cent since 2009, a five
per cent decrease in mischief complaints, and a 36 per cent drop in robberies in the
city. Compared to 2008, those decreases are 71 per cent, 34 per cent, and six per
cent, respectively. There was also a 40 per cent decrease in break and enters in
2010 compared to 2008.

“The Williams Lake detachment members work hard in one of the busiest
detachments in the province,” says Staff Sergeant Warren Brown. “They give 100
per cent effort, they are passionate about reducing crime in the detachment area,
and I applaud them for their work.”

Enhanced policing strategies, a new youth safety committee, improved
relationships with First Nations communities, and the addition of 100 more
Community Policing volunteers all helped to fight crime in 2010, Brown says.
The Williams Lake RCMP continued its efforts to dismantle marijuana grow
operations and other drug crimes in the city. In September, a bust on Western
Avenue saw $200,000 in drugs confiscated, and a bust in the Spokin Lake area in June saw RCMP seize 9,000 marijuana plants. The Cariboo Region Integrated Marijuana Environment Task Force (CRIME), launched in September, dismantled 30 grow ops in its first three months; 18 in the Williams Lake detachment area.

“Now we are focusing on keeping these operations out of our region,” Brown says. “We want to find ways to make grow ops less appealing to those outside the community.” The RCMP’s other priorities in 2011 include further reducing crime; safer youth; continued relationship-building with aboriginal communities; and traffic safety.

“There is still work to be done, but these numbers and these successes are a reflection of the effort and vigilance demonstrated every day by Staff Sergeant Brown and his detachment, as well as Safer Communities Coordinator Dave Dickson and his volunteers,” says Mayor Kerry Cook. “City Council is focused on reducing crime even further, and has lobbied continuously for more provincial support for our detachment.”

Late last year, council adopted a bylaw to make it easier for the City to remove graffiti on private property. It adopted a bylaw to help reduce the number of false alarms in the city, which diverts RCMP resources away from other priorities, and adopted a victim impact statement to be presented at sentencings for drug offences.
“False alarm calls have dropped 20 per cent since 2008, but we still have more than 800 every year,” Cook says. “We need to keep our RCMP members’ time free to focus on crime prevention.”