RCMP Quarterly Update – Corporal Amatto
The RCMP detachment has committed to provide quarterly updates to Council providing statistical crime rate comparisons and other community based preventative programming information. Corporal Amatto provided council with a brief statistic update highlighting some of the different types and amount of crime the RCMP are seeing in the area. Amatto than moved on to update Council on the Habitual Offender Management Program. The HOM program was created as part of the RCMP “K” Division Crime Reductions Strategy in 2013. The program provides a framework for the RCMP, the Alberta Justice and Solicitor General Correctional Services Division and other key community partners to respond to those offenders who are responsible for committing a disproportionately high number of crimes in a community. Corporal Amatto provided a definition of what a Habitual Offender is. They are defines as an adult or youth with an established pattern of persistent criminal code, controlled drugs and substances act and or youth criminal justice act offences, who are identified by current intelligence to be criminally active. The presentation also included stats from 2015 that show a rise in the Crime Severity Index. 2015 was the first time there was an increase since 2003. Another point of the presentation was that there are Habitual Hot Spots in many communities that show crime tends to be concentrated in certain areas within a jurisdiction. One of the final main talking points from Corporal Amatto’s presentation was the benefits of having the HOM Program in the community. The main benefits are that there is a decrease in man-hours for the same offender, there are longer custodial sentences, RCMP will know the offender and be able to have a risk assessment ready. Amatto also said that there is decreased victimization, a change in perception by the courts with these habitual offenders and that information can be shared easily from department to department.