Calgary police have issued a total of 27 coronavirus enforcement tickets

May 7 2020, 6:34 pm

The Calgary Police Service has been busy enforcing the Public Health Act regulations put into place as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

CPS issued a release detailing some crime statistics at the two-month mark of the pandemic, finding that most crimes had actually seen a decrease over the past few weeks.

However, the release also noted that the service has had to issue a total of 27 tickets under the Public Health Act as a result of people “blatantly disregarding” the physical distancing and gathering requirements.

“We know people want to get outside in the sunshine and reunite with friends and family, but we still aren’t at a point where it is safe to do this at a broad scale,” said Superintendent Steve Barlow, Incident Commander of the CPS COVID-19 Tactical Operations Centre, in the release.

“What we do today dictates what our next several months will look like. We want the public and our members to stay healthy and we can only do that by staying home and a safe distance away from each other.”

CPS also believes that the coronavirus pandemic may have an effect on other crime statistics, though they have found that domestic conflict calls have actually gone down overall by 18% since the beginning of the year.

“Keep in mind, our Service has a broad definition of domestic, so this includes intimate partner and familial incidents,” the release states.

Overall violence has also been down since mid-March, dropping 40%, which police believe is likely to do with the closure of bars and other nighttime venues.

Vehicle thefts have seen a 50% decline over the past two weeks, while home break-ins are down by 60%.

Thefts from vehicles (rather than of vehicles) has also seen a decrease by 20% when compared to the same time last year.

Calgarians are still being warned to lock their doors and close their windows to prevent break-ins as warmer weather increases.

Chandler WalterChandler Walter

+ News
+ Crime
ADVERTISEMENT