Coaldale sees reduction in total property crimes in quarterly Community Policing Report

Posted on March 19, 2026 by Sunny South News

By Kristine Jean
Sunny South News

Town of Coaldale councillors heard an update from Sgt. Sean Dutch, chief with the Coaldale RCMP Detachment, during the Jan. 12 Town of Coaldale regular council meeting.  

Dutch shared the quarterly (Q2) Community Policing Report, which covered the period from July 1 – Sept. 30, 2025. The report provided a snapshot of human resources, financial data, and crime statistics for the Coaldale detachment. 

He began his short presentation to council with an update on the new incoming Staff Sergeant, who will take over as detachment commander in March 2026. 

“I just have an update regarding the new incoming Staff Sergeant, Staff Sgt.  Calahoo. We just received information that he is going to be arriving, tentatively, at the end of March,” said Dutch. “We’re excited to have him on board.” 

Dutch then provided some highlights of the quarterly stats with comparisons to last year’s stats, in the same quarter. 

“Generally the statistics for this quarter, compared to the last quarter was relatively unchanged,” said Dutch, pointing out some of the details. “For our quarter compared to last quarter for the Total Persons Crimes there was a reduction of three per cent in total. For the Total Property Crimes we had a reduction of 21 per cent, in this quarter compared to last quarter for last year,” he added. “Also Total Other Criminal Code, we have a 12 per cent reduction in the total numbers compared to this quarter of last year.” 

Dutch also provided some numbers regarding the Total Motor Vehicle Collision stats. 

“Numbers were down also, 22 per cent reduction in property damage, reported vehicle collisions, (and) injuries,” said Dutch, pointing out Common Police Activities stats. “(For) false alarms we had a 33 per cent reduction in call volume. 

Missing persons we had a 100 per cent increase in reported persons that were missing. Spousal abuse unfortunately, there was a 38 per cent increase compared to this same quarter last year, and for our mental health, which falls under the Form 10, we had 150 per cent increase in those types of calls for service.”