Mounties continue to face many of the same issues in Merritt, as evidenced by the statistics in its first quarter report for 2015.
For example, the number of driving bans remain consistent with the fourth quarter of 2014, the majority of 9-11 calls continue to be false.
Merritt RCMP issued 23 driving bans for the opening quarter of 2015, which is on par with the 25 they issued for the fourth quarter of 2014.
RCMP Staff Sgt. Sheila White said police have come across these 23 impaired drivers during the normal course of their duties rather than actively seeking them out.
About half of the bans were for locals, and 19 of them were issued within the city limits.
These prohibitions range from 24 hours, three days, seven days, 30 days or 90 days.
“Personally, I’m not seeing the numbers going down,” White said at the May 12 city council meeting.
Central Interior Traffic Services processed another 22 drivers for impaired driving this quarter. Half of these investigations were conducted within the city limits, but only four of the drivers were from Merritt.
The Merritt detachment has made conducting more traffic enforcement a priority this year.
Of the 89 emergency calls received by police between January and March, 85 were determined to be unfounded.
Patrols of Merritt’s downtown core during this quarter have been ongoing and continue to lead to arrests of intoxicated individuals and the seizure of large amounts of alcohol.
There were 99 files for drunk in public for the first quarter of 2015, which is on par with the 107 files from this quarter last year.
Both quarters average about 30 files per month.
Police statistics show consistency in areas of break and enter cases.
There were 29 break and enters in the first quarter of 2015 and 34 break and enters during the first quarter of 2014.
Residences, however, were broken into 18 times this past quarter, twice as many as the first quarter of 2014.
There were fewer businesses broken into this quarter with eight compared to 13 from the first quarter last year.
There were five car thefts this quarter compared to two from last year’s first quarter.
The numbers for thefts from vehicles were consistent with last year’s numbers, with 14, down slightly from the 17 files RCMP compiled in 2014 for the first quarter.
Merritt police had 30 assault files this quarter, down from 43.
Domestic abuse files, however, were more consistent, with 41 files this year compared to 39 last year’s first quarter.
Merritt’s Integrated Case Assessment Team (ICAT) — which collaborates with community agencies to assess high-risk cases of domestic abuse where there’s the potential for serious injury and even death — had three files open that are labelled highest risk during the first quarter of 2015.
Once given this classification, the ICAT connects a couple with agencies that can help them deal with the abuse.
Under the general investigation section (GIS) of the quarterly report, police dealt with several cases involving the seizure of drugs.
Trafficking of morphine as well as heroin use was on the rise in the first quarter of the year, the police report noted.
Merritt police dealt with 33 calls for service related to the Mental Health Act this past quarter.
Of those files, 13 people were taken to the hospital and five required further medical attention, White said.
These numbers are consistent from the past quarter as well, which saw 44 calls for service related to the Mental Health Act.
