From July through to September, crime in Penticton, B.C., reportedly dropped five per cent compared to the same period last year.
Penticton RCMP Staff Sgt. Bob Vatamaniuck released the latest crime stats during council on Tuesday, which showed a significant decline in bicycle thefts, auto thefts, break-and-enters, thefts from vehicles and property theft.
“There are some specific highlights to that and there are other areas that we still have lots of work to do but this is the third quarter of reductions,” said Penticton Mayor Julius Bloomfield.
“It is starting to look like a trend; we’re hoping it’s a trend and then at the end of the year we’ll have all the stats and if it continues this way then I think we are on the right track.”
According to RCMP, there were 1,800 total reported crime events in that time, down from 1,902 during the same three-month period in 2022.
While there was a decrease in the third quarter in assaults, numbers show there was an increase in both uttering threats and sex offences, which Sgt. Vatamaniuck attributed to a recent educational campaign developed by the RCMP.
“We are kind of victims of our own success. We have created an education campaign for our youth in the community to really inform them what constitutes boundaries for sexual touching and for those types of occurrences,” said Sgt. Vatamaniuck.
“It can happen in a relationship, or those things can happen in friendships even, and that’s generated some files, especially amongst the youth. So that has driven up our statistical dynamic.”
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Business owner Jason Reynen, though, disagrees with the latest report and says crime has stayed the same if not gotten worse.
Reynen along with other residents, who were fed up with property crime, started a group called Clean Streets Penticton last year. The group has since grown to over 4,000 members.
“We have a pretty good ear on what the public is feeling and right now they don’t feel safe. They don’t feel like crime statistics are down,” said Reynen.
“Some people have been broken into repetitively, with really late reply-to times from either RCMP or bylaw and to be honest, it’s not their fault. I don’t want to put the blame on RCMP, I don’t want to put the blame on bylaw because they are doing a brilliant job.”
Reynen went on to say that more work needs to be done to further bring down the amount of crime within the community.
“I feel like at this point we need to start finding another way,” said Reynen.
“Our provincial government isn’t giving us much help at this point, and we’re kind of leaning on each other and more so, sites like Clean Streets or other sites being created. We’re finding another way amongst ourselves to try to help each other.”
The mayor of Penticton says work is ongoing within the community to improve and add to the current resources.
“There is definitely still a concern,” said Bloomfield.
“Everybody can be assured that we’re not letting up on this. This is the start of a trend down, I think. We recognize that there’s still a lot of work to be done, but I think we’re heading in the right direction.”
Meanwhile, Sgt. Bob Vatamaniuck provided an update on improvements to the detachment’s Information Technology and Information Management programs.
The time it takes for police to collect information now takes around two weeks compared to nine months, as it was before the new technology.
Penticton is also one step closer to seeing the long-awaited Car-40 program.
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