The local RCMP is working hard to deal with a series of broken windows in "smash-and-grab" incidents, mostly at businesses in downtown Duncan, in recent weeks, according to Staff Sgt. Ken Beard, head of the North Cowichan/Duncan RCMP detachment.
While giving his third-quarter report at a Duncan city council meeting on Nov. 18, Coun. Carol Newington asked Beard what the police are doing to address the situation.
“These incidents seem to be happening in the early hours of the morning,” Newington said. “Is there anything you can do to help those citizens, like having more patrols or whatever is warranted?”
Beard noted that there has been a 27 per cent increase in mischief to property calls to the RCMP in the time period between July and September this year, which includes smashing out the windows of businesses in “smash-and-grab” incidents in the jurisdiction.
He said that it’s difficult for police to track down the culprits in these cases because they happen so quickly, but patrols in the downtown area have been increased.
“But you have to be at the right place at the right time, which is really tricky because you have so much other stuff on the go in the community as well,” Beard said.
“We have asked the watch to focus their patrols in the areas where we’re seeing this kind of mischief going on regarding smash-and-grab activities. We were lucky in that we were able to apprehend a female and a male that were involved, but there are other criminals coming from other jurisdictions so it’s really hard to predict, but we’re doing the best we can to watch the patterns and trends and track these people down.”
Beard said break-and-enter calls to residences and businesses to the RCMP across the Cowichan Valley are down again in the third quarter, and that’s consistent over the last year.
“We were fortunate enough that we apprehended a couple of people who were responsible for much of that and they are still in custody and not causing us any problems at the moment,” he said.
“But there has been an increase in break-and-enters this year to date at detached garages and construction sites. We’ve had calls for service about people who are walking through construction sites and stealing scrap metal.”
Beard said there has been a 22 per cent increase in harassment calls this year to date in the Cowichan Valley, which are typically related to disputes among neighbours and online harassment complaints.
He said there has been a 36 per cent increase in uttering threats, with the majority coming from the area around York, Lewis and James streets.
Beard said the detachment is forecasting that up to 1,300 prisoners will have been lodged in its cells in 2024 by the end of the year, a significant jump from the 905 that were held in 2023.
“There’s been an increase in in-custody matters at the detachment, and a lot of it is related to substance abuse and other related issues,” he said.
