Nanaimo 2009 Crime Statistics Released

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Theft From Autos & Shoplifting On Rise

The 2009 Crime Stats for Nanaimo are out and some interesting trends are revealed with theft from autos and shoplifting complaints up by at least twenty five percent.

Theft from autos increased by 25 percent while shoplifting complaints increased by almost 32 percent.” These type of offences can vary but are indicative of certain trends within our community “said Constable Gary O’Brien, media spokesperson for the Nanaimo RCMP.”Often drug addicted street criminals regularly target motor vehicles to break into. Items such as GPS units and small change are then quickly handed over for drugs. As many as 10 to 20 vehicles will be broken into on any given night by one or two people.

The other crime type on the rise is shoplifting. “Again ,what we are seeing is criminals shifting from residential break and enters to stealing from stores. The risk of detection for shoplifting is less and the and sentences being doled out by the courts are considerably less than what would be given out for breaking into a home” said O’Brien.

Other areas of interest that showed an increase were in drug trafficking and drug production, both up by 17 and 15 percent respectively. Both increases being attributed to the tenacious effort of the Municipal Drug Unit and Green Teams in in targeting street level drug dealers and marihuana grow ops respectively..

Nanaimo Traffic stats for 2009 also showed an increase of almost 30 percent in the apprehension of impaired drivers .”This increase can be attributed to the hard work of our traffic and general duty members but is also due to the increase in manpower within the Traffic section from the year before.

Other crime prevention initiatives such as the Bait Car Program ,targeting of Prolific offenders and the proactive work of the Bike Unit are also reflected in the statistics said O’Brien.’We are always thriving to do better, that’s the nature of police work .We are however confident that the commitment by the officers serving Nanaimo is 100 percent and with the expected increase in manpower this year and crime prevention initiatives already in place , 2010 will not be a good year for criminals operating in Nanaimo” said O’Brien.