Penticton RCMP have prolific offenders in their sights

PENTICTON – Targeting prolific offenders is making a difference in Penticton crime stats.

Penticton RCMP Supt. Ted De Jager says quarterly stats showing a reduction in property crime is attributable to actively targeting the handful of people in the community perpetrating those crimes.

“That type of crime is in the domain of the prolific offender, who commit well over 85 per cent of the crime in Penticton,” De Jager said in an email recently.

De Jager says a common perception is homelessness is a crime driver, but that isn’t the case.

“That’s not to say homeless people don’t commit crime, particularly on the social level, but break and enters tend to be at the prolific level,” he says.

Between January and March of this year, compared to last year during the same time period, property crime dropped in all three categories.

Break and enter from business, residential and other, was down by 37 per cent, 30 per cent and 49 per cent respectively, between the first quarter of 2017 and the first quarter of 2018.

The trend continued between the fourth quarter of 2017 (October to December) and the first quarter, when break and enters from business fell by three per cent, and by 60 per cent in the break and enter, other category, which includes outbuildings, garages and sheds.

Residential break and enters were unchanged during the same time frame.

The recent statistics represent a turnaround from fourth quarter comparisons between 2016 and 2017, when break and enter, other, spiked by 110 per cent. Residential break and enters also rose by 20 per cent during that time frame.

The only bright spot in that time period was in the business category, where break and enters dropped by 22 per cent.

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