The commander of Battlefords RCMPDetachment says there has not been many complaintsexpressed from the general publicabout problems with speeding in the city's school zones.
RCMP Staff-Sgt. Phil Wilsontold councilhe was alerted to the problemnot from complaints from the general public, butfrom council members and the media in the past couple of weeks.
Still, Wilsonpledged to step up his detachment's speed enforcement efforts in the wake of the increased concernsexpressed about the safety of children inthe city's elementary school zones.
Concern about speeding in school zones had been raised at an Oct. 11 council meeting on the heels of a meeting at Lawrence School attended by Mayor Ian Hamilton and Councillor Grace Lang, where school zone speeding concerns were raised.
Recently, Lang called for greater police enforcement to stop speeding, with the support of councillors Brad Pattinson and Trent Houk, who suggested temporary stop signs as a way toquell the problem.
At the municipal servicesmeeting Monday, Houkasked Wilson if stepped-up enforcement efforts such as speed traps in the school zones are being used.
Wilson respondedthat was somethingthey could do"better than we have."
There were certain times of day when speed trapsin school zones are beneficial, he said, but there were other times when schools zones are not necessarily ripe for high speed.
Railway Avenue has been an area that has created many complaints about speeding, and has been a prime focus forofficers as a result.The areas around the high schools have been another hot spot, he said.
Wilson also noted the difficulty of enforcing speed in the school zones. His detachment usually has four to five officers working in an afternoon, and two are usually tied up with files or other work.
That would leave one or two officers for any speed enforcement and they would not be able to cover every school zone every day, said Wilson.
Still, that wasn't to say they couldn't do more speed enforcement. "I'm sure we could manage to do some of that," said Wilson.
Houk added any stepped-up efforts would be greatly appreciated, along with greater word of mouth among the public, and "save some kids," he said.
Wilson also encouraged the general public to callthe detachment with anyconcernsor information about problems they see, because if the police don't hear about the problem it makes it difficult to follow up.
Apart from the school zone concerns it was another routine crime report from the RCMP, with the September numbers seeing some reductions in some key areas. Person offences were down compared to September 2010 from 99 to 44, residential break and enters down from nine to four, and property offences down from 255 to 214. Business break and enters went up compared to September 2010, though, from three to six, while criminal code offences went up from 145 to 174 and drug offences went up from 12 to26.
For the year to dateperson offences are downsix per cent, business break and enters are down 20 per cent, residential break and enters down 46 per cent and property offences down nine per cent. Criminal code offences are up 12 per cent and drug offences up 43 percent.
