Sidney-North Saanich RCMP saw a minor bump in calls for service in the first quarter of the year compared to last year, while crimes against persons were down, according to the latest stats from the detachment.
The report, which covers the period between Jan. 1 and March 31, was presented to North Saanich Council June 5.
In it, police said they received a total of 1,500 calls for service, up four per cent from the same period in 2022. Of those calls, 84 were priority 1 – the highest priority – and 342 calls involved a criminal investigation.
In terms of confirmed criminal offences, the detachment saw 266, a five-per-cent decrease from 2022.
Crimes against persons were down 20 per cent year over year, with 67 being recorded in 2023, while property crimes were up nine per cent to 137. There were 62 other criminal code violations in 2023.
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Of the criminal investigations in 2023, 44 cases had enough evidence to be brought to the Crown for charge approval, with 38 being approved for charges to date, and a number of cases still under review.
This 86-per-cent charge approval rate was up from 2022’s 70 per cent.
Breaking those stats down between the District of North Saanich and the Town of Sidney, the report showed North Saanich was the source of 493 calls for service which required a police response, while Sidney was the source of 611, though fewer of Sidney’s calls were priority 1.
North Saanich saw calls for three assaults, seven domestic violence instances, one extortion, eight for harassment, two for robbery, one for a sexual offence, three for uttering threats, one residential break and enter, one other break and enter, 13 fraud calls, 11 mischief calls, three auto thefts, three bike thefts, 12 shoplifting, four thefts from vehicles, six disturbances, two breaches of probation, and no controlled drug and substance calls.
Sidney saw eight assault calls, two domestic violence, six harassment, two sex offences, two uttering threats, one arson, two commercial break and enters, one residential break and enter, two other break and enters, 21 fraud calls, 10 mischief calls, one auto theft, three bike thefts, 19 shoplifting, seven thefts from vehicles, 11 disturbances, 11 breaches of probation, and no controlled drug and substance calls.
Turning to traffic in the entire response area, police responded to eight collisions with non-fatal injuries and 37 collisions with no injuries.
There were 11 impaired drivers and 397 traffic violation tickets and warnings issued.
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