If you’re reading this while driving, Edmonton police chief has a message

If he was still in the business of issuing tickets, Edmonton police Chief Rod Knecht guesses he could hand out at least four every morning to distracted drivers on his way to work.

And that’s a real worry for Knecht.

The third quarter report released during Thursday’s police commission meeting showed that patrol members have issued 3,763 tickets, almost 72 per cent above their enforcement target and five per cent above the 2013-14 average.

The southwest division issued the most (963), followed closely by northwest (923), west (708) and northeast (586).

“We continue to be concerned and the numbers keep going up,” Knecht said, suggesting that once people start to accumulate demerit points and lose their licences, people may start obeying the law.

“The fine doesn’t seem to be the big issue, it’s the demerits that are going to hit home. People have to understand that they are putting themselves in jeopardy and putting the travelling public in jeopardy.

“People are going to get hurt, people are going to be killed as a consequence of getting that text message out or receive that text message. It’s pretty ridiculous to me.”

Knecht said police would continue to “aggressively enforce” distracted driving laws.

SOUTHEAST NUMBERS UP

While the four violent crime indicators — assault, homicide, robbery and sexual assault — were 2.5 per cent cent below 2015 numbers, there was a slight increase in the southeast division (up six per cent from 857 incidents to 908) compared to the same time last year.

So far this year, the number of victims were up in four of the six patrol divisions, but the southeast also saw increases in property crime (22 per cent) and social disorder occurrences (eight per cent).

Knecht put that down, in part, to the redrawing of boundaries that shifted some of the downturn numbers to its neighbouring division.

PROPERTY CRIME RISES

Total property crime was up 14 per cent, compared to the same time last year, and was up in all but one of the key indicators.

Of the 11,198 incidents in 2016, theft from vehicles (8,229 up from 6,608) led break and enters (4,500 up from 4,337) and theft of vehicles (3,682 up from 3,316).

Only incidents involving theft over $5,000 were down and that was only by the slimmest of margins, 339 compared to 340.

Knecht said the poor economy in Alberta was one of the reasons for the increase in property crime.

People have to understand that they are putting themselves in jeopardy and putting the travelling public in jeopardy.

DIP IN CLEARANCE RATE

The police department “weighted” clearance rate of 41.3 per cent is slightly off its target of 43 per cent and is being blamed on several factors: an increase in crime levels since 2015, the fact police haven’t seen a significant increase in patrol or specialized investigative units and the fact property crimes have been rising faster than violent crimes.

“This has resulted in a larger backlog of crime files to investigate,” the report said.