Earlier this week, Manitoba RCMP released its monthly report on crime statistics.
In the report, the Western District, which Dauphin and the Parkland reside, crime saw a 19% leap in May 2021 as opposed to May 2020.
CKDM spoke with the RCMP Media Relations Officer, Tara Seel.
On the topic of crime being up this May in comparison to last, Ms. Seel pointed out multiple factors,
“Anecdotally, as the weather warms up, we do see an increase in certain types of calls, such as mischief and noise complaints. So, that could account for some of it. Also, we are seeing numbers increasing due to easing of restrictions.”
Even with the factors, Ms. Seel listed above, she says it’s tough to project how people will act in the following months and how that will translate to the statistics.
“It is really hard to say what we are going to see. Of course, with the really nice weather we’re anticipating as well as the lifting of restrictions, we do expect more people to be out and about. What those people choose to do, we’ll wait and see. We’re hoping that people will be respectful and kind and all those things and that we won’t see an increase (in crime.) But it wouldn’t be unexpected if we did.”
The report mentions that the Western District reported decreases in all crime categories, except for the "Crimes against the Person." Category. Which refers to a broad array of criminal offences, usually involving bodily harm.
On that same note, Seel wanted to highlight a positive piece of the report for the western district, stating that although there was an increase in crimes against persons, it did have the lowest percentage of all the three districts for that category.
The complete report of statistics can be found here.
