Police were slightly busier in Colwood during the first half of 2023 compared to the same period in 2022, council heard during a presentation from the West Shore RCMP.

The presentation, made at the Sept. 25 council meeting and a follow-on from the detachmentB次元官网网址檚 earlier West Shore-wide report made in August, took a more detailed look at police work in the city and included an extra month of data.

Between Jan. 1 and Aug. 31 2023, 3,204 hours responding to calls for service in Colwood, up eight per cent from the same time period in 2022.

There was a similar eight-per-cent increase in the number of files opened in Colwood, up to 3,401 in 2023. Of those files, 2,590 were considered founded by the RCMP, meaning the initial report which sparked police action proved accurate and justified.

Those founded files in the first half of 2023 included 13 assaults with a weapon, up seven from 2022, 10 break-and-enters at a business, up three from 2022, nine residential break-and-enters, up two from 2022, nine extortion files, up one from 2022 and largely involving youth online according to police.

Fraud under $5,000 was up three files to 27, harassing communications increased by eight to 29, trespassing increased by 25 to 31 files, mostly related to unhoused people around the library, and trespassing at night increased by six to eight files, which saw one person charged in three incidents.

Mental health-related calls saw one of the larger increases year over year, with 280 files in 2023 compared to 232 in 2022. 112 of those were related to suicidal persons and involved 256 staff hours.

Colwood Mayor Doug Kobayashi said nothing in the report surprised him, and it shows the RCMP are doing a good job in the community, but he is hoping the data can be refined further in the future to provide more context.

B次元官网网址淭here is a direct correlation between crime and population growth,B次元官网网址� said Kobayashi. B次元官网网址淚 think they have to look at presenting the data in a different fashion. Overall though, IB次元官网网址檓 pleased with the report B次元官网网址� if you look at the data, there is nothing that pops out as something we have to look at immediately.B次元官网网址�

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