The overall number of criminal offences and motor vehicle collisions dropped across North Saanich and Sidney, according to a report that also identifies a local parking lot as one of three locations with repeated collisions.
Property crime — the most common type — dropped by 14 per cent during the first six months of 2021 relative to the same period, according to a Sidney/North Saanich RCMP report, which Staff-Sgt. Wayne Conley presented to Sidney council Monday.
Crimes against person and other criminal code violations also dropped 13 per cent and 21 per cent respectively. Overall, offences across major crime categories topped 512, a drop of 17 per cent per cent compared to the same period last year. The average for the last three years was 633 offences.
RELATED: Property crimes down, crimes against persons up in Sidney in 2020
The report also shows that local streets are becoming safer. Collisions topped 80 during the first six months of 2021, a drop of 22 per cent. The number of impaired drivers pulled off by police also dropped by 28 per cent to 31.
The report also points to four specific locations in the local detachment’s coverage area with an unspecified number of repeated collisions: the McTavish traffic circle on Highway 17; the corner of Third Street and Beacon Avenue in Sidney; the 2200-2300 block of Beacon Avenue in Sidney and the parking lot of the Mariner Village Mall in Sidney, which includes Thrifty Foods and also other outlets.
Overall, local RCMP received 3,072 calls for service between Jan. 1 and June 30, a drop of five per cent from the same period in 2020. Of those calls, 206 (or seven per cent) fell into the category of highest urgency, a drop of two per cent from 2020. But the number of calls where mental health appeared as a factor rose by four per cent to 197.
Just under half of all calls (46 per cent) came from Sidney with 32 per cent coming from North Saanich. Tsawout First Nation accounted for nine per cent of calls, followed by Tsartlip First Nation with five per cent.
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