No pattern in South Okanagan and Similkameen crime stats

PENTICTON – There do not appear to be any regionally based crime trends uniform to the whole Okanagan Similkameen Regional District board members learned yesterday. 

Penticton RCMP Supt. Kevin Hewco discussed the latest police statistics from the region with district board members at their July 21 meeting.

Hewco said he looks for trends and spikes, or declines in criminal activity when assessing the quarterly statistics, finding comparable statistics between some communities, and varying statistics in others when doing an assessment.

Communities in the Keremeos RCMP catchment area are echoing a trend seen in the Penticton area, as residential break and enters increase while business break and enters decline.

That’s not the case in the rest of the policing district, however, as Osoyoos saw a second quarter drop of 43 per cent in residential break-ins, while business break-ins rose by 17 per cent.

In the Princeton detachment area, break and enters in Princeton mostly occurred in a two week period where multiple businesses were targeted twice. The detachment showed no change in numbers of business break and enters compared with the same period last year, and an 18 per cent decline in residential break and enters.

In Summerland, business break and enters were up 88 per cent, from eight to 15 per cent, while residential break and enters declined by 13 per cent, from eight to seven.

Calls for service declined in Keremeos (-4.7 per cent), Oliver (-0.4 per cent) and Princeton (-10.9 per cent ) over the same quarter last year, while calls increased in Summerland (+5 per cent), Penticton (+4.9  per cent) and Osoyoos (+0.7 per cent).

Rural Osoyoos saw business break and enters rise from three to 14, a 367 per cent spike.

Hewco also noted rural Oliver and Osoyoos business break-in numbers were driven by numerous break-ins at the landfill.

Several thefts of heavy equipment from the rural Oliver and Osoyoos areas also drove numbers up in the last quarter.

Hewco noted a spike in Oliver rural fraud reports, from five to 19 complaints or about a 250 per cent increase, largely from reports of internet or telephone based scams.

In Oliver, both business and residential break and enters declined by 30 and 50 per cent, respectively, but in rural Oliver business break-ins rose from four to 13, a 225 per cent increase.

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