October 17, 2016 Council Meeting Notes: RCMP third quarter report

Yesterday, I posted about the development matters that were addressed at Monday night’s council meeting. Today, I will be posting on the remaining items that were on the council agenda.

Ginger Sherlock, Langley Emergency Program Coordinator, gave a presentation about “The Great British Columbia Shake Out” which is a province-wide earthquake drill that will be taking place on October 20th at 10:20am. Sherlock pointed out that City of Langley staff will be participating in this drill.

Sherlock also noted that the Langley Emergency Program will be hosting a personal preparedness session on Tuesday, November 1st from 7pm to 9pm at the City of Langley Fire Hall. For more information, please email ep@langleycity.ca

After the presentation, Councillor Storteboom noted that there were no meetings of the Metro Vancouver Board or Climate Action Committee which is sits on, but did note that people should check out the Managing Rain on Residential Lots video that has been recently posted to the Metro Vancouver website.

Councillor Martin provided an update of the activities of the Fraser Valley Regional Library, highlighting upcoming events. An event that is interesting to me is a 3D printer demonstration which will be occurring at the City of Langley branch on Saturday, October 22nd.

The final report that council heard was from Superintendent Murray Power, OIC of the Langley RCMP detachment.

Langley City Year-Over-Year Crime Trends in 3rd quarter. Select table to enlarge.

Due to how policing is structured in BC, municipalities formal role in policing is essentially limited to just paying the bills. That being said in Langley, we have a very good relationship with the RCMP, and I believe a good line of communication.

Right now we get quarterly reports on crime statistics. While this is good, it really doesn’t give council the whole picture around policing in our community. Superintendent Power noted in his third quarter presentation on Monday that in 2017, we can expect a more fulsome report on policing in Langley City, including more detailed financial information. I’m really looking forward to seeing this improved reporting, and it is encouraging to see that the RCMP is voluntarily improving the lines of communications with local governments.

As I noted in a previous post, the largest number of calls to the RCMP were about issues resulting from homelessness.

Compared to the 5-year trend line, theft from auto is significantly up. Superintendent Power noted that people should be mindful of removing all personal items from vehicles to reduce this type of crime.

The RCMP stepped-up street checks in Langley City during the summer months with about half of all checks in Langley occurring in the City of Langley.

Business and residents break and enters year-to-date are below the 5-year trend line in the City of Langley. Year-to-date, there has been one homicide.

After the RCMP report, council gave final reading to Bylaw 3003 which is regarding permissive tax exemptions that I posted about previously.