Retail theft, sexually related offenses and overdoses have been keeping RCMP busy, as Staff Sgt. Jerry Nutbrown updates council on his units’ work.
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Nutbrown heads the general investigation section (GIS), currently comprised of 11 regular members and a municipal employee.
“We’ve got a serious investigative side, which I have four members,” he said at the May 11 Governance and Priorities Committee meeting. “On the other side, we’ve got the crime reduction unit which is six members and then there’s myself and our administrative support person.”
He explained the serious crime side works on the more involved complex investigations which may be more serious issues.
The AGENT program, which currently has 89 businesses signed up according to the City of Lloydminster, authorizes police and peace officers to act as representatives when addressing trespassing, loitering and other unlawful activity on their property.
“We, along with the CPO’s (community peace officers), implemented the AGENT program,” said Nutbrown. “I think it’s very good because of the involvement with the community.”
He says the program has already seen some success.
“We’ve seen a number, quite a few warnings that have been provided, that’s the first step in it,” he said, noting they’ve given out tickets already through the program. “It’s moving along and participation is still increasing.”
Retail theft has been on their radar, something they’re looking to tackle.
“We’ve gone and done some retail operations. Retail thefts are a very significant issue in North America,” said Nutbrown, noting they’ll work with the loss prevention officers at the establishments they’re trying to help. “We try to target the higher crime or higher victimized retail outlets.”
According to Nutbrown, these can result in a trespass notice along with any applicable charges.
Something his GIS unit has been dealing with is human trafficking.
“We are seeing and we’ve had cases where we’ve investigated with human trafficking, so that’s happening here and that’s generally related to the sex trade,” he said. “Out of town people, we’re generally seeing, will come in and set up either in a rental or in a hotel or something like that and then there’ll be a way of booking which are online.”
Sexual offenses have also been on the rise.
“Sexually-related offenses have also been increasing we’ve seen lately,” said Nutbrown. “That could be the online exchange of explicit materials, could be child abuse materials or other things it could be somebody shared out something and now they’re being extorted.”
He noted social media is being used to arrange meetings.
“Social media generally being used for arranging meetings or things like that,” he said. If its offense related generally, we’re seeing that it’s underaged that are being involved.”
Nutbrown also took some time to focus on Lloydminster’s downtown, speaking speficially to the unhoused.
“There’s a number of people that I would refer to as being on the streets at any given time that do have homes and even locally in the city,” he said, explaining they may not be employed, but addiction may draw them downtown. “But they spend their day, or evenings, in the downtown core.”
RCMP continue to deal with overdoses, putting out media releases when there could be a potentially harmful batch on the streets.
“Overdoses, we’re seeing recently quite a few of those,” he said.
Nutbrown highlighted the high use of Narcan by his members in an effort to help people who are experiencing an overdose.
Fentanyl continues to be used with different colours helping RCMP identify what is being sold or what could be causing overdoses. As they attempt to combat overdose, they’ve arrested drug dealers, something Nutbrown says disrupts the system but doesn’t stop it.
“We’ve arrested, charged drug dealers, we’ve had some back in business in less than week,” he said.
When it comes to when crime is occurring, it’s not about the day of the week, as addiction doesn’t take any days off.
“We’ll see spikes when there’s money out, whether it be child tax credit, GST, other government aid programs that will definitely spike things,” said Nutbrown. “A lot of its tied to addictions and that doesn’t take a day off.”
Coun. David Lopez commented on the open drug use in the community, something he hopes they can find a solution to.
“It’s a frustrating thing,” he said. “Last week I had, at my restaurant, I had two different locations two, different people and they were both using. It’s hard for my staff, we’re cleaning up the paraphernalia. At the same token, you’re trying to run a business and you have people doing this in the open and sometimes it gets frustrating. I know it’s frustrating for the RCMP and your team it’s an ongoing thing.
“For people, if they want change, they have to speak up and talk to their MLAs and MPs as well.”
Nutbrown put it bluntly when talking about dealing with open drug use on the streets.
“Enforcement’s not the answer,” he said.
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