Break-and-enters are an ongoing issue in Denare Beach, according to Sean McPhee, the new sergeant at the Creighton RCMP detachment.
McPhee raised the issue when he presented the detachment’s community policing report for April on Wednesday, May 25 at the Creighton town council meeting.
“We had a rash of B and E’s [break and enters] and vandalisms two days ago,” he said.
“We had a rash last year, I think it’s the same kids, they did eight all in a row [last year].”
In a later interview with The Reminder, McPhee explained that the target of these break-and-enters were seasonal cottages.
“People know when cottages are empty,” he said.
When asked what local RCMP officers were doing to prevent more break-and-enters, McPhee said that police are patrolling the area and regularly checking on individuals who are under court-ordered curfews.
Since the RCMP cannot monitor homes constantly, security cameras at seasonal homes are “helpful” for law enforcers, McPhee said.
In McPhee’s opinion, leniency in the court system is contributing to the crimes that he attributes to six or seven repeat offenders in the area.
“Oftentimes these kids get a slap on the hand and they are sent home,” he said.
“There are probably four or five youths and one or two adults, [who] came up as youth doing the same thing, and they are kind of ringleaders for them now. And they have been taught through the court system that nothing is going to happen them,” McPhee said.
McPhee said he is encouraging local victims of crimes to participate in the court process through victim impact statements, which judges are obligated to read before a conviction is made.
“It give the victim a chance to make this personal in court,” he explained.
“If we can get the people in Denare Beach to come to court and say, ‘Hey look, we’ve had enough of this,’ and be there in court when they are sentenced...it’s harder to say, ‘Here’s a slap on the hand’ when the victims are staring you in the face.”
McPhee said that RCMP officers have little control over what happens to the offenders.
“It’s not a Denare Beach only situation, it’s a criminal code situation. Youth are treated very leniently in court. The thing is when the same kids are doing the same thing over and over and over, at some point we have to stop being lenient and remove them from the community.”
The Creighton RCMP community policing report for April indicated that there were four assault offences and six willful damage or vandalism offences called in, with 36 total service calls that month.
The report also noted that the Creighton Detachment has set three key goals: targeting prolific offenders, speeding violations, and regular check stops, or sobriety checks.
“You can solve a lot of issues by being visible,” McPhee said of the check stops.
In his report to the Town of Creighton, McPhee also noted that the Creighton detachment is now fully staffed with one sergeant and five constables, though one constable had been called away earlier in the month to assist with policing efforts during the Fort McMurray wildfire.
