First quarter statistics show a steep decline across the board.
Residential break and enters were down by 48 percent, commercial break-ins by 59 percent and the number of vehilces that were broken into was down by a whopping 71 percent.
Further to that, shoplifting has dropped off by 33 percent.
RCMP Staff Sergeant Darren Dodge says their prolific offenders program is obviously having a positive effect.
“With the additional members in the crime reduction unit, they target our prolific offenders, and those are people that are identified as people committing the majority of our property type crimes in town. So with a focus on property crime offenders we’ve managed to put some very specific people in jail for a period of time, and I think you’ve seen that reflected in the downward trend of our property crimes.”
Dodge says the Crime Reduction Unit is now fully staffed with four members.
Mayor Bob Simpson.
“City Council is very pleased to see these developments, but there is still work to do to create long term, sustainable change.  The need for additional resources for both police and bylaw was a necessary step, but we need to continue to take strong actions to ensure Quesnel remains a safe place to live for all of its citizens.”
The City of Quesnel added two members to the RCMP detachment and increased its bylaw compliment to 4.5 staff members following a budget survey in 2020.
Simpson says the city has also received positive feedback from downtown merchants that they appreciate the improved retail environment due to the increased enforcement efforts.
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