Property crime drops in Kamloops; RCMP hope residents are removing temptation

But police and residents being proactive about property crime have also helped mitigate the problem, especially with use of the detachment’s CompStat Management Tool which tracks emerging property crime trends.

“In addition to people looking out for their residences and their commercial businesses, we focused on break and enters in our CompStat, and to that end we watch which areas are having more thefts and more break and enters, and we focus on that area, sending out more patrols and in addition we focus on the suspects in the area that may have criminal records for thefts and break and enters,” Shelkie says. “If they have any conditions enforceable we make sure that we’re checking on curfews and so on, so we’re trying to be proactive and keep those bad guys out of areas where they may be committing break and enters.”

Theft from motor vehicles has been a pressing issue in Kamloops for years, and those numbers have also dropped off in this year’s third quarter, by roughly 13 per cent.

“I’m hoping it’s that people have started locking their vehicles and taking their belongings out of their vehicles,” Shelkie says of the factors behind the drop. “True, some people don’t report and that’s always been the situation. I’d have to say that’s been a constant number of the people who don’t report, so we’re very much thinking that people are hearing the message, and locking their vehicles, and taking their belongings out.”

One crime that has seen an increase during that time period is theft of bicycles. Shelkie attributes some of that rise to how expensive bikes are becoming, and how criminals can profit off of selling the stolen property. On the other hand, Shelkie adds that all bikes are at risk of being stolen, and these thefts can be prevented.

“We’re finding that it’s actually just bikes across the board whether its a $100 bike for your child, or the $5,000 bike for the hardcore mountain biker are going missing,” she says, “and that’s because they’re crimes of opportunity often, and the bad guys use them as a form of transportation and also to sell them.”

The best way to prevent these thefts is by taking your bike inside every night into either a locked garage or your home, or lock it up to something secure with a lock that can’t be cut easily.

by Ashley Legassic

Property crime drops in Kamloops; RCMP hope residents are removing temptation

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