Prince George, B.C.- The  Superintendent of the Prince George RCMP Detachment, Dahl Chambers, along with Inspector Kirk Hopkins, have updated Council on the most recent crime stats for Prince George. 

As of yesterday, the RCMP  detachment for Prince George had received 38 thousand calls for service, "That is down 8 thousand from last year at this time" says Superintendent Chambers.

Inspector Hopkins says the stats are showing that by the end of this year, criminal code offences are expected to be down  25% over all.  He says the numbers haven't been that low in more than eleven years.

"The crime reduction team I think is certainly responsible for this" says Superintendent Chambers but he adds, Prince George is also a pilot site to work with prolific offenders.  The project tries to help them  not reoffend when they are released from custody by offering them  support to deal with many of the issues which have driven them to crime "often prolific offenders who have not been given  support are likely to reoffend within 24-48 hours of their release" says Chambers.

Domestic Violence is still a serious issue in Prince George  with Chambers saying there are 1100 to 1200 calls per year  but the RCMP are working with the John Howard Society to help the men break the cycle of violence.

The traffic unithas been very successful says Chambers "We have reduced injury accidents by 20% over the past year and that  reduces the impact on ICBC and on our health care system"  He says the community continues to have a 98% seatbelt compliance rate.

The stats, (which were published last month on Opinion 250) show that as of the end of September, the number of criminal code incidents in 2008, are down from the same period  the year before.

On the matter of gang activity, Superintendent Chambers says the  RCMP know who the players are and a number of those suspected of being involved in gang activity are in custody and  before the Courts. "We are being very successful in investigating these, and if the Court releases one with conditions, for instance a curfew of 9:00, well, don't be surprised if there is a knock on the door at midnight to make sure the person  is there.  If the conditions are  broken, the Court will act very quickly."

Chambers says while the sex trade activity  hasn't gone away,  the activity has gone "indoors" and "Out of sight is out of mind and there are  fewer calls about the ladies."

As for downtown,  Chambers says 27 people are about to face arrest for minor drug offences "But  we have to realize that these people will be out very shortly and  we need to have something to deal with these people when they get out  or they will be heading right back up the hill." (reference to Prince George Regional Corrections Centre)

The challenge now says Chambers will be to maintain these reductions, "We're hoping for further reductions but I'm not going to write any cheques on that right now."

This is quite likely the last update Chambers will provide to Council. He is moving to Vancouver to take on a new position with "E" Division Headquarters.