RCMP Staff Sgt. Jerry Nutbrown brings you behind the scenes with a serious of columns taking you behind police work and how it’s done in our community. If you have a question you think needs to be answered in Behind the Bison, send it to admin@borderpulse.ca and we will be sure to share it with him.
As I haven’t done this in a while, I thought I’d provide you some details about some calls for service and
proactive file types we initiated in a recent thirty-day period.
62 calls to 911 were received, and these range from a pocket dial to an active incident requiring police
attendance. Often these calls require more than one emergency group to be dispatched including
ambulance, fire and police. An injury collision would draw all three.
37 reports of assault were received and 6 of these were family violence related. Generally, family
violence is between people in a family and can include intimate partners. Domestic violence is generally
referred to when the violence is specifically between intimate partners.
14 assist general public reports were received. This call for service type is a bit of a catch-all but could
include something like a locked vehicle with a child inside or some other non-criminal request that we
have no specific category for.
12 criminal harassment and 13 harassing communications reports were received. These complaint types
are when a person does things to another that causes them to fear for their safety and often the actions
are similar to stalking. Harassing communications is specifying that the actions have, or are, taking place
via voice or messaging.
26 disturbing the peace call types were generated. This category is when a person(s) is doing something
in a public place that disturbs others. As this is a criminal offense, the disturbance can’t be something
minor but has to reach a criminal level.
We received 13 complaints of failure to remain at a collision (AKA, hit and run). By law, drivers involved
in a collision are required to deal with it on scene. This often means exchanging information with the
other driver, or property representative if the collision wasn’t with another vehicle.
27 false alarm calls were received but the good news is that these numbers are declining.
67 fail to comply with attending court or failing to obey a condition on a release document. Whenever
an accused person is released ‘on documents’, this means that they have at least one condition to follow
which might be just to attend a court date. If they fail to attend court, then a charge is laid and then
typically a warrant for arrest is issued. A police officer may also be conducting compliance checks on the
accused and then find them not abiding by a condition such as curfew. In this case the accused is either
arrested or a warrant for their arrest is sought.
37 investigations were started during this period with mental health being the primary factor. These can
range from someone making concerning comments about self-harm to a person who is apprehended
under a mental health act and taken to a facility to be mentally assessed regarding any danger they may
be to themselves or others.
During this timeframe there were hundreds of others calls for service received but the above is sampling
of a few common types that we typically get.
Read more: Behind the Bison – Impaired Operation
