The national crime rate has remained steady from last year according to Statistics Canada.

Staff Sergeant Robin Alexander with the High River RCMP says overall, when it comes to thefts, this area is doing a bit better than last year.

"Last year we showed a spike in property related crime in our rural area, as well as in town, this year we're down from that somewhat and really that tends to be a function of who's in jail and who isn't," he says. "We have some regular offenders that we've been chasing around for awhile and we've managed to put away some and that means a drop in our property crime."

He says these types of crimes tend to be driven by drugs and there's always people that struggle with addictions that lead them into committing those offences. He says they had had a bit of a break over the last few months although it is climbing both in town and outside of town.

Staff Sergeant Alexander says anything that can easily be sold is the target for thieves saying they'll sell it on sites like kijiji and others. He says tools, unsecured vehicles and batteries will disappear quickly because they can get money for the batteries at salvage areas.

Nationally, drug crimes are up seven per cent but Alexander says that's not the case locally.

"(The numbers are) About the same in High River, I mean it's here and really drug statistics will come either as a result of complaints about drugs or enforcement actions taken by police. Drug investigations typically are fairly labour intensive and it just depends on how many drug busts we do as to what our statistics will say," he says.

Some good news so far is how quiet it's been on the highways this summer.

 

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