The Staff Sergeant at the Steinbach RCMP detachment says their General Investigation Section has been instrumental in reducing crime in the city. In a report to city council last week, Harold Laninga noted thefts and drug busts in the last quarter of 2015 were down significantly from the same period a year earlier.

Harold Laninga"Council has been very supportive in giving us a two-person GIS unit and I think, because of that, we've been able to make the inroads we can. There have been several times over the past few years that I've said, I don't know what we would do if it wasn't for our GIS unit because of the nature of the files they are taking on. I think there's no surprise to anyone here that there is a meth issue in Steinbach right now. I think you're seeing that some of the vandalism, what I call the minor thefts and mischief, have gone up because of that. But we directly targeted that and I think now we're starting to see a reduction because of the work that was done."

Meanwhile, Laninga says 266 traffic tickets were issued in the last quarter of 2015, two and-a-half times great than a year earlier. He explains traffic patrols have been stepped up considerably.

"I've had a lot of meetings at headquarters saying this area is the fastest growing area in Manitoba. I've done studies on our traffic. If you look at traffic between Steinbach and Blumenort, we have daily traffic equivalent to west #1 Highway when you go past Headingly or east #1 if you go past the Lorette turnoff, approximately 13,000 (vehicles) a day. So because of that, because of, unfortunately, the fatalities we've had in our area, the accidents we've had, I've asked for increased patrols here and that is happening."

Mayor Chris Goertzen says city council is pleased that the local RCMP detachment has been focusing on priorities set out by the city. Those priorities are: 1) Organized Crime and Drugs 2) Property Offences and Crime Reduction 3) Traffic and Police Visibility.

"It's really encouraging to see their work actually having a benefit on the statistics and on our community."