Staff Sergeant Paul Thalhofer presented his quarterly report to mayor and council on June 27.
While some types of offences were up and others were down, he said there were no significant changes in the community crime statistics.
One major concern are the large number of dropped 911 calls. There were 59 calls to the service abandoned in the time period, and only one valid call to the 911 service.
Each 911 call requires valuable police resources to follow up and ensure the caller is indeed safe and not in need of assistance.
Currently, the Fort St. James RCMP Detachment is operating with five fewer members than full capacity (18), for a number of reasons.
This means there are fewer officers available for any proactive services and officers are struggling to keep up with reacting to calls to service instead of prevention and community outreach type of work.
“I think we’re doing what we can with the resources that we have,” said Thalhofer.