There may be some light at the end of the tunnel as it pertains to the police investigation of the downtown explosion.
In September, the Prince George RCMP determined that a suspected copper wire theft, which led to a natural gas line being damaged land the subsequent incident on Dominion Street.
Superintendent, Shawn Wright is optimistic the file can be wrapped early in the new year.
“It is nearing conclusion and I don’t want to get ahead of myself but I think that file will be concluded shortly into the new year.”
The downtown explosion sent three people to hospital, one of which was Victoria Mcgivern, a city employee, who was transferred to a Vancouver Hospital for further treatment of her injuries and burns.
In addition, UNBC’s Wood Innovation Research Lab is set to re-open in the spring as restoration efforts are expected to cost over a million dollars.
Wright also noted property crime saw a drastic decrease in 2023.
He believes there are several factors behind the drop.
“People are being a lot more vigilant and in-tune with those issues and prevention. I think some of the encampment management issues really dropped our numbers for minor incidents in the downtown core with the movement and decampment of Millenium Park.”
“We have been focusing on some of our repeat offenders with regards to theft and we have teamed up with our partners and some of the local retail outlets to tackle those issues. Additionally, the province violent offender initiative has seen some success as we have been working with crown counsel to keep some of those offenders in custody.”
At the same time, the level of violent crime remains a concern for PG’s top cop. The city has recorded eight homicides in 2023, surpassing last year’s mark of five.
Wright noted much of that activity was related to the gang conflict, which has spread past the Lower Mainland and pushed into this area.
When asked if there has been a slow uptick in people involved in the crime and drug factions of society making their to PG from other parts of the province, Wright noted has been noticeable.
“Yeah, I would say that is a very accurate assessment. Over the last two years and into 2023, the trend has continued where we are seeing individuals from the Lower Mainland bringing the illicit drug trade and their criminal activity into Prince George here.”
Another big file from this year was the death of a 12-year-old boy later identified as Carson Cleland in connection to sextorition.
Reports of sextortion, the practice of extorting money or sexual favors from someone by threatening to reveal evidence of their online sexual activity, rise every year in Prince George.
Thus far in 2023, Prince George RCMP has received 62 reports of online sextortion, already surpassing the 56 reports received in 2022.
Sextortion is most prevalent in youth between the ages of 13 and 18.
Wright noted the detachment is working with School District 57 to reach this demographic.
“We are trying to raise awareness on the youth, around the early teens, which seem to be the primary demographic targetted. We’ve been getting out there and getting the message across along with parents and school districts getting involved. As far as an investigative capacity, we have tapped into some provincial and federal units that tap into cybercrime.”
Wright’s priorities for 2024 include building up his Problem-orientated policing team, which will deal with neighborhood crime.
“We just got that off the ground and it’s partially staffed up and through 2024, we will get the rest of those positions going. That unit will go through the city and find out what the concerns of different neighborhoods are.”
The PG Superintendent is putting a request to city council for four new members at the detachment.
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