Close X
Thursday, November 14, 2024
ADVT 
National

Edmonton Police Face Spike In Crime Calls Due To Energy Industry Woes

The Canadian Press, 28 Sep, 2015 12:11 PM
    Edmonton police are linking the downturn in the oilpatch to a spike in crime.
     
    Chief Rod Knecht said officers have responded to 9,000 more calls for service this year, compared to the same time in 2014.
     
    Violent crime is up 12 per cent, property crime 18 per cent and the number of 911 emergency calls is up by almost 14 per cent. 
     
    Knecht said the calls for service are not all serious crimes, but added this "significant" jump means that sometimes his officers take longer to respond.  
     
    "When oil is up, we are busy, and when oil is down, we are really busy," Knecht said Monday.
     
    "And that is just because a lot of folks are coming back to Edmonton from, say, Fort McMurray, Cold Lake, other points north, and they are staging here in Edmonton waiting for the price of oil to go back up so they can go back to work."
     
    Knecht said it was almost like someone threw a switch last November. That's when the price of oil tumbled to below US$70 a barrel after the OPEC cartel declined to cut oil production.
     
    "We saw a (crime) spike occur then and it has continued on since then. You can say the crime rate is linked, to a certain degree, to the price of oil." 
     
    Oil was trading not much above $44 US on Monday. 
     
    The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers estimates that 35,000 jobs in the oil and gas industry have been shed so far this year. Last week, Calgary-based TransCanada told its workforce that more staff cuts are on the horizon.
     
    To deal with the increase in calls, Knecht is asking the City of Edmonton for 80 more officers and support staff.
     
    He also plans to assign more police to work crime cases instead of other duties, such as responding to minor traffic accidents.
     
    Another staffing challenge is recruiting people who can meet qualification standards.
     
    He said the Edmonton Police Service gets plenty of applications, but some people can't pass the physical fitness requirements.
     
    The city has experienced this crime "hangover" in the wake of an energy boom before, the chief said.
     
    He said no one knows how long this downturn is going to last, but he believes it is early in the game. 
     
    Knecht, who is a former deputy commissioner of the RCMP and former head of the Mounties in Alberta, said this is his fourth time riding a boom-and-bust cycle in the province.
     
    "We will get through this one as well," he said. "This is life."   

    MORE National ARTICLES

    Clayton Ness Sentenced For Shooting That Injured Sheriff Allan Buttree At Alberta Courthouse

    Clayton Ness Sentenced For Shooting That Injured Sheriff Allan Buttree At Alberta Courthouse
    A man who shot a sheriff during an escape attempt at a northwestern Alberta courthouse has been sentenced to 14 years in prison.

    Clayton Ness Sentenced For Shooting That Injured Sheriff Allan Buttree At Alberta Courthouse

    Squirrel And Surveillance Case: Montreal-Area Man Fought The Law And The Law Won

    Lawrence Klepper, 73, received nine violations between 2006 and 2011 from the City of Westmount, a community located just west of downtown Montreal.

    Squirrel And Surveillance Case: Montreal-Area Man Fought The Law And The Law Won

    B.C. Politicians Assaulted Decades Earlier Demand End Of Rape Culture

    B.C. Politicians Assaulted Decades Earlier Demand End Of Rape Culture
    Margo Wagner and Joan Sorley had been friends for years before they realized they'd both been raped.

    B.C. Politicians Assaulted Decades Earlier Demand End Of Rape Culture

    B.C. Bishop Says Abstinence Is The Only Healthy Choice Over Hpv Vaccine

    B.C. Bishop Says Abstinence Is The Only Healthy Choice Over Hpv Vaccine
    A Catholic bishop in British Columbia says a vaccine that protects girls against a sexually transmitted infection isn't inherently wrong, but abstinence is the only healthy choice.

    B.C. Bishop Says Abstinence Is The Only Healthy Choice Over Hpv Vaccine

    Guy Turcotte Trial Hears That He Admits To Causing Children's Deaths

    Jurors at Guy Turcotte's first-degree murder trial heard Thursday that he admitted to causing the deaths of his two children.

    Guy Turcotte Trial Hears That He Admits To Causing Children's Deaths

    Jewish Groups 'Astonished' That NDP Candidate Not Aware Of Auschwitz

    Jewish Groups 'Astonished' That NDP Candidate Not Aware Of Auschwitz
    Leaders in the Jewish community reacted with dismay on Thursday after it was revealed that Alex Johnstone, the NDP candidate in Hamilton, Ont., referred to fence posts at Auschwitz as being phallic on Facebook in 2008

    Jewish Groups 'Astonished' That NDP Candidate Not Aware Of Auschwitz