Calls to the cops have gone up a bit this year.
Between January and March, 927 calls were made to the cops. Of those, 112 were about disturbances involving alcohol.
Corp. Martin Giguère, head cop in Port Hardy, told council he thinks that COVID-19 has given a lot of people cabin fever. Times have been hard, especially in families where folks have been laid off. He added that, because of COVID-19 restrictions, people have been drinking outside all day long, “and that’s why we have this huge spike in disturbances and alcohol related calls this quarter.”
Drunk driving files have also gone up. The number of people being taken off the roads for drunk driving have been going up since 2018.
Giguère confirmed in the council session that that’s because the cops are doing more checks. The RCMP have been cracking down on impaired drivers on North Island roads.
In a separate report, Port Alice RCMP Constable Rebekah Draht said that RCMP have been checking as many drivers as they can. They’ve even nabbed people for driving on drugs in the middle of the day.
