Mental health-related calls to Richmond RCMP spiked last month and from the previous year, according to a monthly police report to city council.
However, the 273 mental health incidents in October - up 29-per-cent from September and up 95-per-cent from October 2018 – were due, in part, to one “high-volume client” who was responsible for 101 of the calls.
The report indicates that the majority of mental health-related files that month “did not require a significant use of resources or police action.”
Also highlighted in the report were commercial break-ins, with a “significant number” of them — an increase of 32-per-cent from September — occurring at constructions sites and residential parkades.
These areas were targeted for mail, vehicles and storage lockers. RCMP are continuing their investigations and have identified suspected offenders.
Residential break-ins, said the report, were down (there were 39 that month, a decrease of 17 per cent from September).
October also saw 35 incidents of auto theft, a 17-per-cent increase from the previous month and six-per-cent increase from October 2018. The report notes that RCMP have “deployed additional patrols to target this activity.”
There were also 220 cases of theft from vehicles that month, 11 cases of assault with a weapon and three reported arson incidents. However, the report notes that each of these is within the five-year-average range.
Overall, however, the report states that Richmond “has the lowest violent crime rate as well as the second lowest property crime rate,” when compared to Coquitlam, Burnaby and Surrey.
