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Cases Down From Last Year

Crime cases have dropped in Port Hardy in the last year.

Overall crime contin-

ues to decrease in the District of Port Hardy.

Port Hardy RCMP Staff Sgt. Gord Brownridge appeared before council April 14

to present his detach- is one of the detach- said.

Traffic is another focus for RCMP.

During this quarter, RCMP wrote a total of 23 violation tickets and conducted seven impaired driving road blocks.

RCMP investigated four impaired driving cases and seven others that resulted in suspen- sions ranging from 24 hours to seven days.

RCMP also conduct- ed 34 street checks in an effort to disrupt the local drug trade. As a result, cocaine traffick- ing/possession went from two to one, and marijuana trafficking/ possession went from nine to four.

There were 10 motor vehicle accidents with three involving injuries and seven resulting in over $1,000 in dam- ages.

Const. Chris Bezaire is continuing to devel- op a restorative jus- tice program for Port Hardy.

Restorative justice, explained Brownridge, brings parties together with the thought that “breaking bread” is part of the healing pro- cess.

Const. Bezaire “iden- tifies files that are good candidates for it. There aren’t many that do fit, but we’re trying to pick out the ones that do and make it work.”

Other noteworthy statistics: prisoners held dropped from 176 to 163; theft from motor vehicle went from 13 to two (although Brownridge said this could reflect a person on a spree); assaults went from 20 to 16.

ment’s quarterly report. For the first three months of 2015, RCMP report a drop in files from 821 last year to 768 for the period ending March 31.

One of the areas that saw an increase was sexual assaults which went from two to four. Causing a disturbance also went from 22 to 28. Alcohol abuse and intoxication in public are one of the department’s priorities and their efforts resulted in a four per cent decrease over the previous year with a drop from 69 to 52.

“Const. Rob Brennan continues to identify and work with as many community partners as possible to move this initiative forward and place the emphasis on treatment as opposed to incarceration,” he

“In March of this year we met with a new judge for this area. She is very much on board with alterna- tive measures,” said Brownridge.

RCMP also met with the Crown Prosecutor, Mental Health and First Nations repre- sentatives to discuss options for the future and ways to build on their success.