By Chantal Wagner

Daily patrols regarding meth

Police Commission hears crime trends of 2019

Jan 16, 2020 | 9:48 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB -The presence of meth in the community was discussed during the Medicine Hat Police Commission Meeting tonight.

According to 2019 trends, police are seeing a lot of incidents around theft, and most of it is related to addiction in and around methamphetamine which is causing the most disruption.

Police Chief Andy McGrogan says meth is the most prolific.

Adding, behaviour changes disrupt both safety and the feeling of safety in the community is related to the drug.

He says meth is a social issue more than a police issue, however, they continue to work on all pillars – from road safety and community safety in general for 2020.

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“And a lot of our other crimes kind of stem from there so, we’ll be putting out a pretty extensive annual report. As you heard, even our use of force is up and you know some of these people are unmanageable because of their addiction.”

McGrogan says they are trying to get police staffing to a level that can be a little more effective in the high population areas where people are not feeling safe – and one of them is downtown.

“We need some sort of magic pill that can stop people from being addicted to meth, because the issue there is, one hit of meth and some of these people are addicted for life and it’s sad.”