Medicine Hat Police Chief and Inspectors at Novemeber Police Commission meeting

By Hayley Ferguson

Medicine Hat Police Service

Police say fall has brought an increase in shoplifting

Nov 22, 2019 | 10:54 AM

Medicine Hat, AB – The Medicine Hat Police say that October was a busy month for their patrol unit.

They reported at this month’s police commission meeting that they have been dealing with a number of mental health and methamphetamine-related call.

With many of the mental health calls, the suspects are not meeting the requirements under the Mental Health Act.

Which means they are unable to apprehend them and lead them to court-mandated help for their addictions.

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Chief Andy McGrogan believes those issues can be related to the other noticeable trends they’ve been seeing this month, with an increase in shoplifting and break and enters into storage compounds.

The police service says that they have had complainants and calls from all major department stores in town.

“It’s meth and it’s opioids. And it’s desperate criminals. As long as we’ve got people that are desperate for money, we’re going to have crime. Because that’s a last resort.” he continued. “And it’s not looking favourable right now. Our economy’s not in a good position now. So I think we’ve got a whole bunch of factors working against us.”

The report says that the shoplifters have been filling shopping carts full of goods and walking out.

They say that if the suspects are confronted by the store’s Loss Prevention Officer they will either drop the items or run to waiting cars.

McGrogan also updated the commission regarding the service’s budget, saying they continue to expect a positive variance at year-end.