Both Cranbrook RCMP and the City of Cranbrook are actively encouraging residents and business owners to report all crimes to the RCMP, no matter how small they may seem.

Outreach by the city has found that many incidents, especially repeat or multiple offenses, aren’t being reported.

Over the past few years, Cranbrook RCMP, city leadership, and council have coordinated city resources to improve community policing and reduce crime trends. Reporting every incident is essential so the RCMP and the city can accurately determine the resources and support needed, and provides the data the city needs to ask the province to send more resources to Cranbrook.

“The Cranbrook detachment uses a data-driven approach to policing by analyzing information from police reports to identify trends in criminal activity, crime hot spots and to determine if there is a link to other investigations,” said S/Sgt. Barry Graham, Cranbrook RCMP Detachment commander.

“This information helps us make more informed decisions about how we use our resources, and which proactive and enforcement initiatives to focus on to try to prevent crime before it happens. From the Budget 2026 Citizens Survey results, we saw that at least 10% of crimes were not being reported to police. We suspect that in reality that number is much higher. What might seem like a small issue could actually provide vital information for police.”

At the political level over the past two years, members of council and the CAO have met with provincial officials at the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) conference in Victoria in September 2025, and in Vancouver in 2024 to discuss the need for more resources and support for crime prevention in Cranbrook.

City representatives met with the Honourable Terry Yung, Minister of State for Community Safety and Integrated Services, and senior officials from the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General to advocate for stronger measures addressing repeat offenders and their impacts on local residents and businesses.

In a separate meeting with the Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs, discussions focused on homelessness, substance use, and mental health, emphasizing the lack of coordination among provincial agencies and service providers.

At the same conference in Vancouver in 2024, city representatives met with Attorney General Niki Sharma and the Director of Police Services, Glen Lewis. The city highlighted the rise in property crime linked to drug abuse and mental health issues. Representatives urged the province to review legislation that allows frequent offenders to be quickly released after arrest, emphasizing that the community’s tolerance for repeat property crime is reaching a breaking point.

Meetings with senior officials from the Ministries of Social Development and Poverty Reduction, and Mental Health and Addictions in 2024 focused on the increasing number of vulnerable individuals from the East Kootenay coming to Cranbrook to access social services, healthcare, addictions treatment and court.

The city requested provincial support to help offset local costs of providing social services and improved transportation for individuals to return to their smaller home communities in the Kootenays with support.

The response Cranbrook often receives is that the province reviews crime stat data to understand the issues and identify needs for each community. Because of the consistent lack of official community reporting of crime – meaning an official report to RCMP with a file number, not a random post on social media – Cranbrook is not being considered to receive any additional supports from any other levels of government, provincial or federal.

“Each of these meetings reflect a proactive approach by council to try to address serious issues Cranbrook is facing and gather the necessary provincial support,” said Mayor Wayne Price. “What we’ve learned over the last several years when meeting with senior levels of government about these issues is data matters. If a community like Cranbrook makes a request for support to any level of government, there needs to be statistics and data to support that request.”

To help make crime reporting easier, you are encouraged to use the RCMP Online Crime Reporting tool.

This convenient tool allows residents to report certain non- emergency crimes—including minor property damage, theft under $5,000, hit-and-run incidents to unoccupied vehicles, and lost property. By enabling online reporting, RCMP call takers, and frontline personnel can focus on higher-priority calls, which can help enhance overall community safety and response times.

Earlier in October 2025, the city made the results of the Budget 2026 Citizen Survey available to the public,which was designed in part to help guide the Cranbrook RCMP in setting policing priorities for the next fouryears. Conducted from September 2 to 19, the survey focused on community safety as residents identified this at their top concern in last year’s findings, which highlighted homelessness, crime, and safety as top concerns.

Key findings show safety perceptions remain strong, with 93% of respondents feeling safe during the day, though only 75% feel safe walking downtown. Residents highlighted priorities for the RCMP including street- level drug activity, property and person crime, and homelessness.

Overall, the survey provides valuable insights for the RCMP to ensure community priorities are reflected in service planning.

e-KNOW file photo

City of Cranbrook

Article Share