A 2021 year-end report provided by Sargant Guy Landreville of the St. Pierre RCMP detachment indicates that, in general, crime in the RM of Ritchot saw a significant decline from the year before.
The most dramatic decrease in every single ward had to do with property crime. St. Adolphe had a decrease of 42 percent, and another 62 percent in Ste. Agathe. Île-des-Chênes only saw a 17 percent decrease, but this was in part due to one incident, according to Landreville.
“The one that stands out is Adventure Power Products [break and enter],” Ladreville says. “We had four people charged with five counts of property-related offences.”
In the region west of the Red River, along Highway 75, property crime was down by 70 percent.
Crimes against persons was also down significantly, he adds. These include reports of uttering threats, domestic violence, and assault.
Landreville warns that traffic crime statistics will likely be skewed in this report due to COVID-19 regulations that made police enforcement and close contact with drivers difficult. Since restrictions have begun to ease, Landreville says enforcement is up.
Mayor Chris Ewen noted that there may be another reason for the relatively low crime rate in 2021.
“Ritchot hired a specific patrol group, which is the Commissionaires, to go around, let’s say every day of the week,” Ewen says. “And they travel around the communities where we believe we saw the highest criminal activity… and that’s been going on for about a year now.”
Landreville agrees that added security such as this could certainly have played a role in crime reduction.
While most crime stats have seen improvements, Landreville says there is one stat that is definitely not heading in a more positive direction: fraud.
“Our frauds are starting to go through the roof,” adds Landreville. “More and more sophisticated types of things we’re seeing, some into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
