A new quarterly report by the New Brunswick RCMP sheds some light on the crimes and police enforcement happening in Charlotte County.
In the last quarter of 2024, 1,589 occurrences were recorded by police in all of the Southwest New Brunswick Service Commission.
Of those, the majority of them were in St. Stephen with 41 per cent of occurrences, second to Eastern Charlotte with 24 per cent.
Most municipalities in the area didn’t reach more than 10 per cent of those occurrences.
New Brunswick RCMP St. Sgt. Geoffrey Peters said these reports give a good look at what is happening in each community and where the police are spending their time.
“For example, there could be a belief (based on conversations or social media) that crime is worse than it is in a certain area,” he said. “As we rely on reported information, it is the best way to relay what we spend most of our time on.”
The RCMP also meets with councils as much as they can to keep them up to date with their work.
He said the data also shows how much time they spend on other things, like assisting other agencies, mental health calls and homelessness– otherwise known as non-criminal code occurrences.
“It also keeps us accountable to our communities as we report on our policing priorities and shows where their tax dollars are being spent,” he said.
Specific crime data
Some crimes saw a reduction in the last quarter compared to the year prior.
There was no change in the number of traffic offences, but crimes against persons, which can include varying types of assault, and violations that could cause death, saw a slight reduction.
Property crimes saw a drop as well with 165 occurrences in the last quarter of 2024, compared to 363 in the last quarter of 2023-24.
Peters said this is likely a result of many different factors, including bringing prolific offenders into custody.
“It could be fewer reported crimes, however, it could also be a result of our targeting of prolific offenders and working to get them in custody,” he said.
He said the RCMP does see a correlation in the reduction of property crime (thefts, break and enters) when prolific offenders are in custody.
“There is some variation expected year over year within a certain percentage, and we would like to hope it is a result of our investigations and cooperation of community members that result in convictions and ultimately lower crime rates,” he said.
In Eastern Charlotte, 76 per cent were non-criminal code occurrences, while 24 per cent fell under the criminal code.
In St. Stephen, about 68 per cent of the 651 occurrences in the last quarter of 2024 were non-criminal code occurrences, with about 32 per cent considered criminal code offences.
Meanwhile, in Saint Andrews there was roughly 18 per cent of the 167 occurrences that would fall under the criminal code, with 81 per cent being non-criminal code occurrences.
According to the report, 83 per cent of the calls coming into the RCMP during the last quarter of 2024 were non-emergency calls.
In 2024, there were 12,449 abandoned calls, which means calls, both emergency and nonemergency, were disconnected by the caller before being answered by an operator.
About 10,779 were considered emergency calls, and 42,283 calls were non-emergency.
Working to get the right information out
In a previous interview with CHCO-TV, Peters also said simply not seeing a police officer patrolling does not mean it is not working to solve crime and reduce it.
Police work, he explained, has changed a lot over time and so too has crime.
“As we have shifted our style of policing to adjust to the realities of our world, we need to highlight our efforts and reiterate that police visibility is different than crime reduction,” he said.
He said with large rural areas to police, triaging calls is critical, ensuring that high-priority urgent calls received the response and attention it requires – adding it may mean lower priority calls have to wait.
Peters said communication is key.
“Also – as we can only report on what we know about, having people report ALL crimes is vitally important so we have a good representation as to what is taking place – when and where,” he said.
There is an online reporting tool available on the RCMP website.
“We certainly encourage dialogue and people bringing these concerns forward,” he said.
