Mischief and property crimes are making up a significant amount of the policing work at the Cold Lake RCMP detachment.

That’s one of the takeaways from the detachment’s annual review of the 2023 crime statistics, as presented to city council last Tuesday.

Mischief calls comprise 15.5 per cent of the total workload in 2023, ten per cent higher than any other category. 

Meanwhile, property crimes municipally jumped 24 per cent, with a total of 2,882 property crimes in 2023.

“The mischief calls are crazy right now. And it ties up the RCMP and also on our side on the municipal enforcement,” said Mayor Craig Copeland on The Morning After. 

“The amount of volume of calls that our detachment has is some of the highest in the province per officer. And so if people want to come to Cold Lake, they know it’s a busy detachment.” 

A total of 195 vehicles were stolen in the detachment area and a total of 231 break and enters.

Assaults were also much higher in 2023, with 196 cases up from 120, as well as sexual assaults.

Those crimes saw a significant increase with 110 sexual assaults, after two consecutive years of 69 files.

As provincial numbers sit at approximately 20 per cent of vacancies — positions that are paid for but unfilled — there are currently two hard vacancies and four soft vacancies in the detachment.  The detachment is expected to receive two recruits that graduate on April 8 and one recruit that graduates on May 20.

The calls acknowledge the feeling out there that criminal activity is more prevalent, with a total of 11,606 calls for service, up from 2022.

“As the Detachment Commander, I am comfortable with the direction and progress of the detachment and the established objectives and priorities, which
includes drug enforcement, crime reduction and community engagement, which will continue to be detachment priorities,” the submitted report reads.