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According to recent statements by Rod Knecht, head of the local police, the killings in Edmonton are in a remarkable and rapid increase.
To date there have been 19 people dead. Four of them are females and the remaining fifteen male individuals.
The high number of homicides to which we refer, unfortunately positions the city in the top of the list, even before the rate or average obtained from all the cities of Vancouver (2 cases), Calgary (5 cases) and Winnipeg (6 recorded cases).
The recent spate of killings in Edmonton has put the city on the way to one of its worst evaluations in years, because historically the highest figure recorded was 48 cases in 2011.
It should be noted that of the 19 homicides above, it has been confirmed that at least 10 of them are the result of shooting firearms.
As a comparison, we can report that the official records of the past year confirm that 12 of 31 homicides were strictly related to weapons, why, is putting special emphasis on controlling number of weapons available in the streets, people involved in gangs or those who abuse alcohol or drugs.
Unfortunately the criminal alert has expanded throughout the province, so the police chief of Edmonton is not the only one who said about it.
Recently the Chief of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Red Deer also expressed concern over the issue, as I state that their officers are overwhelmed with overwork, increased pending cases and files.
In central Alberta it is dealing with a load of accumulated cases, in some cases the number of them even is becoming overwhelming. Not only because the calls received by the police service are increasing; but also by the complexity of the cases and unresolved investigations.
After this stage we can conclude that now more resources and more time to resolve the investigations are needed.
Red Deer is thankfully acknowledged the pressure under which police officers are, so that the City Council recently allocated $ 1.1 million in the operating budget 2016, aiming to hire six new agents integrating research team said.
Moreover, Sergeant Gary Rhodes, manager RCMP Sylvan Lake, during the press conference he declared that his team is seeing cases that do not usually see, such a large increase in crime with high levels of violence, theft vehicles inside yu / or residences, various types of attacks, and a high rate of abuse and domestic violence.
Sylvan Lake, personal crime reached 20 percent, property crimes by 18 percent and overall crime is up 15 percent.
For your information we can say that on average the RCMP is in charge of about 95 cases annually, but estimates for this year predict that the institution will be responsible for at least twice the number of cases at the end of 2016.
To better understand the scenario that we are facing, we invite you to review the following statistics.
* Edmonton
• Year 2016: 19 homicides so far, including 10 cases with firearms.
• Year 2015: 30 murders in total during the year, including the police shooting death of Daniel Woodall.
* Vancouver
• Year 2016: 2 homicides so far.
• Year 2015: 16 murders in total during the year.
* Calgary
• Year 2016: 5 homicides so far.
• Year 2015: 34 murders in total during the year.
* Winnipeg
• Year 2016: 6 homicides to date.
• Year 2015: 24 murders in total during the year.
* Toronto
• Year 2016: 26 homicides so far, including three stabbings, sixteen shots and seven other cases with weapons.
• Year 2015: 56 murders in total during the year, including 18 cases of stabbings and shootings.
-After The figures provided before, we must ask what would be the main cause, or the reasons why crimes, robberies, crimes, rapes, robberies, assaults and even murders are occurring so frequently.
While there are several related studies, there is no conclusive causal, now most experts in sociology consulted on the issue, they said that the phenomenon is closely related to the economic crisis the country faces high unemployment and deep indebtedness of its inhabitants.
These same studies establish that social disorder and violent crime are usually related to the abuse of alcohol and drugs, in which unemployed people affected by the crisis and have fallen recently.
It is for this reason that it is imperative that cities worry about the mental health of its population. It seemed to be that the increase "resilience" of people going through economic hardship is a priority.
Therefore we take this opportunity to invite you to contribute to the solution of the problem, be supportive, empathetic and assertive, look around, support, listen and hold their loved ones or nearby who may be experiencing difficulties.