Manitoba RCMP is reporting an 11 per cent overall decrease in police-reported crime between August 2020 and August 2021.
The largest decrease was seen in the East District (which includes Selkirk and Gimli) at 17 per cent, compared to 13 per cent in the West District (which includes Brandon, Dauphin and Winnipegosis), and 2 per cent in the North District (which includes Churchill, Shamattawa and Thompson).
A full list of detachments for each district can be found on the Manitoba RCMP website.
East District
The East District saw a drop in almost every crime category, except for “common police activities” which was unchanged, and drug enforcement, which rose slightly.
In this area, there were 14 recorded instances of possession, compared to 12 a year earlier, while trafficking increased to 24 from 19.
Crimes against persons, which includes assault and robbery, were down by 29 per cent overall, and crimes against property, such as arson and break and enter, were down by 23 per cent.
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West District
Reported crime in the West District fell overall in almost every category, however, there were a few exceptions.
Arson nearly doubled, to 11 in 2021 from six in 2020; fraud was up by 15 per cent; and there were 274 instances of “suspicious person/vehicle/property,” marking a 13 per cent increase.
As of August 2021, 60 people were reported missing, compared to 71 the year before.
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North District
In the North District, reported crime fell across most categories, but not by much overall.
Statistically, the largest decrease was in the drug enforcement category, with only 37 instances having been reported in 2021 compared to 82 in 2020.
While property crime was only down overall by eight per cent, there was an enormous drop in fraud, which fell to 28 in 2021 from 179 instances the year prior.
Wellbeing checks meanwhile, jumped by 48 per cent.
Mounties point out a few caveats to the data, notably that not all activities are criminal in nature (check wellbeing), and the data includes all reported incidents, including those that are unfounded.
