PARKSVILLE – Traffic issues continue to make up the majority of calls to the Oceanside RCMP detachment.
There have been 874 complaints so far this year. Staff Sergeant Marc Pelletier provided Parksville council with year-to-date statistics this week and said a second officer to handle traffic would be a big help.
“We just can’t keep up with the amount of calls we’re getting for traffic with only one member,” he said. “He’s got days off, he’s got holidays, courses, et cetera. That’s the number one issue right now. We really want to get onto the traffic. We have no time for speeders in town here.”
In listing the top 20 issues, Pelletier also noted a big spike in mischief to business calls this year.
“The reason behind that is we have a lot of transient people that came through, said Pelletier. “Those were the people that were setting up in front of the business, spray-painting, garbage. It was non-stop until we were able to get onto them.”
Going into September, there have been 126 mischief to business calls. There were 21 in all of 2015.
Break and enters to residences and theft from vehicle calls have dropped year over year. Pelletier credits a significant increase in curfew checks. There have been 2165 so far this year.