Fresh statistics from St. Albert RCMP confirm the city is a relatively safe place.
Reflecting on them with the members of the city’s policing committee at their regular meeting Tuesday evening, Oct. 8, interim commander Staff Sgt. Dwayne Moore said he’s worked at detachments that respond to higher rates of violent crime — much higher.
One place that remained nameless, where violent offences such as assaults and murders were more common, had a Crime Severity Index (CSI) score of 845.
St. Albert’s is under 64, a number that may set a course record at Cattail Crossing but does not place the city among the country’s scariest.
Moore recalled hearing complaints about graffiti on buildings when he was in St. Albert when he last was the interim commander, for about three months at the end of 2023.
Such an incident wouldn’t cause much concern in those other places but it did here, and that suits the 20-year veteran of Alberta policing just fine.
“When that’s a big deal here, it’s a good thing, because people care about it,” the top cop said.
Data for 2023 show not a single violent crime type was in the top 10 for call frequency, not even serious ones.
Mounties in this city most often are called to motor vehicle collisions with property damage: Officers responded to 1,086 of them last year. Another two of the top five file types deal with cars and trucks and the people inside them: After suspicious person/vehicle calls (893), “other” non-moving (838) and moving (783) traffic violations are what St. Albert officers are most likely to be called out to next.
There were some 588 “mischief” calls rounding out the top 5 and “items lost/found” — lost and found — coming in next at 515.
Officers responded to 490 Mental Health Act calls and 394 municipal bylaw calls, investigated 376 instances of theft under $5,000 and conducted 363 well-being checks, and that’s your top 10.
Overall the number of calls was right on par with statistics provided for the previous four years:
- 13,496 in 2023
- 12,732 in 2022
- 13,436 in 2021
- 12,557 in 2020
- 12,794 in 2019
A total of 485 adults and 40 young persons were charged with Criminal Code offences by St. Albert RCMP in 2023. The most common offences by youth 17 or younger were assault, assault with a weapon, uttering threats and mischief.
However, statistics don't tell the whole story, and the policing committee’s role is to liaise with law enforcement on what sort of crime they would like to see some emphasis on. In St. Albert, that includes domestic violence, according to committee chair Ian Sanderson.
It also includes mental health-related calls, which though fewer in number, accounted for 7.4 per cent of officer workload, the largest proportion of any call type.
Put another way, excluding property damage collisions (6.4 per cent), officers spent twice as much time dealing with mental health calls than assaults (3.7 per cent) or any other type of file in St. Albert in 2023, including:
- Other non-moving traffic violations (3.6 per cent)
- Mischief (3.5 per cent)
- Other moving traffic violations (3.4 per cent)
- Fraud under $5,000 (3.3 per cent)
- Sexual assault (3.1 per cent)
- Disturbing the peace (2.8 per cent)
- Theft under $5,000 (2.7 per cent)
Some calls start as another type, a break-and-enter for example, but become a mental health response once officers assess the situation.
“Because you don’t know who else to call, we’re not necessarily the ones who should be responding to that, but because there’s no one else, it falls on the police,” Moore said. “We know that mental health calls for service are definitely an issue and it’s our top file type by workload. The amount of time we have to put into those is significant. I think we’re moving in the right direction on that (but) it’s getting the right people involved.”
He said the city would benefit from the establishment of a provincially funded Police and Crisis Team (PACT), which sees mental health professionals such as psychiatric nurses, psychologists, registered nurses (RNs) or social workers dispatched alongside officers.
That professional has access to medical records on the spot that police do not, equipping them to more effectively handle mental health calls. The officer’s presence addresses any safety concerns should the situation take a turn.
PACT offers mental health assessment, support, and/or consultation in crisis situations from Alberta Health Services and police. According to an AHS webpage, the main goals are to:
- Divert individuals who are in crisis with mental illness and addiction issues from the justice system and hospital emergency departments;
- Assess and stabilize individuals in crisis within the community;
- Connect individuals with resources and supports.
“It’s very helpful from that side,” Moore said. “I know it because I see it. There may be an offence, but the root goes back to the mental health side and … throwing them in jail, may be not the best (course of action).”
St. Albert is fortunate enough to have access to the PACT based in Edmonton, Moore said. More rural areas are in a tougher spot than this city, but as the stats show in black and white, there is still a demand here.
“A PACT in St. Albert would be extremely helpful,” he continued. “There’s access to mental health teams, but the problem is more on the AHS side. We have members assigned to those positions throughout the province; it’s a matter of getting that funded on the provincial side.”
The teams have been rolling out across Alberta according to need, Moore said. City council representative Coun. Ken MacKay, himself a retired police officer, suggested AHS be invited to present at a future meeting and if a visit to the Botanical Arts City helps demonstrate the benefit a PACT would have here, all the better.
