Residential break and enters quadrupled in Penticton, and other alarming stats

PENTICTON — Police officers in Penticton have been busy dealing with soaring property crime offences.

From December 15, 2015 to January 31, 2016, property crimes in Penticton have gone up by more than 30 per cent compared to the same period last year. Of those statistics, break and enters to homes have skyrocketed from nine to 38 incidents.

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“We do have a rise in property crime offenses throughout different policing jurisdictions and that’s rural areas, as well as, urban centres,” says RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Dan Moskaluk.

Theft from vehicles jumped from 28 to 57 and theft of vehicles also doubled from 10 to 21 offenses.

There is one positive stat: break and enters to businesses have dropped from 28 to 21. But overall, the number of property crimes has grown.

The cause of these incidents may be linked to the economic downturn.

An economics professor from UBCO, Julien Picault, says the continuous layoffs from Alberta’s oil and gas industries and the sinking loonie may be factors.

He says there’s a strong correlation between economic hardship and increase in crime.

“We have research that says when we have poor economic conditions, people tend to consume more drugs. We also have research that is proving when the price of drugs is going up, then people tend to commit more crime,” he explains.

RCMP agree there may be a drug connection.

“A lot of our property offenses are related to drug-related issues, be it addictions or trafficking or purchasing,” says Moskaluk.

Moskaluk also says it’s a small number of repeat offenders committing the majority of the offenses.

“We know who they are and we do make great effort to keep an eye on them, and making sure they don’t breach their conditions,” he says.

RCMP advises people to report any suspicious activity because it does help police nab the suspects.