Major crime down, road-related incidents are up, Nunavik police tell KRG
Nunavik police provide update to Kativik Regional Government council
Nunavik Police Service reports major crimes are down so far this year in Nunavik. (File photo)
Major crimes and suicides are declining in Nunavik this year, but vehicle-related incidents are on the rise.
However, it’s not clear what’s causing the decrease in major crimes, including homicides and assaults, said Jean-Francois Morin, Nunavik Police Service’s deputy chief of operations, in an update to the Kativik Regional Government council on Wednesday.
He presented a report that compares police-response statistics for the first four months this year compared to the same time period last year.
One possible factor for a decline in major crimes Morin cited during his presentation was gun violence prevention measures implemented by Nunavik police, including gun safety training and registration.
Nunavik police have also been giving away free gun lockers — something Morin said has enabled more Nunavimmiut to safely store and secure their firearms when not in use.
“There’s better tools in place for people to safely store their firearms,” Morin said in an interview. “We’re hoping that that has to do with it, that access [is] not as it used to be a few years ago.”
He said Nunavik police have placed an order for more gun lockers to arrive in the spring.
So far this year, there have been two homicides in Nunavik.
The first one took place Jan. 2 in Akulivik. Morin said he could not provide details about this incident because “the people involved are very young and the file is still under investigation.”
Then on April 13, Willie Tumic, 29, of Umiujaq was charged with murder after Peter Jr. Crow, 47, died after he was stabbed.
Meanwhile, an increase in fatal vehicle crashes has prompted Nunavik police to target intoxicated driving across the region, Morin said.
He told the Kativik council that police have started training officers to use a breathalyzer device that tells if a driver’s test result is higher than the legal limit.
The breathalyzers are not available in every community, but where they are being used, Morin said, they provide more accurate information to police about a driver’s intoxication level.
Nunavik police have also begun conducting roadside checkpoints to catch intoxicated drivers at unannounced times and places in communities.
Morin said one recent check in Puvirnituq tested 75 drivers, which led to two arrests for intoxicated driving.
“The goal is not to go and arrest everybody, the goal is to do the prevention,” he said.
“We want to make people aware of the risks and most of them are, because they are personally affected, usually with people from their family that had accidents, that were injured or even unfortunately died.”
Amid challenges in recruiting, Morin told council he expects Quebec police officers to continue providing in-region support for Nunavik police.
Since the assistance began last spring, Morin said, the two services have worked together on several investigations into illicit drugs and alcohol trafficking from the south to Nunavik.
Morin said the RCMP’s Depot Division in Regina has made it possible for Nunavik police to fast-track the training and onboarding of local recruits.
Some of the first Nunavimmiut recruits taking the six-month training approach are expected to start work in the region early next year, he said.
When your coop membership number becomes your most important identification, it could be indicative of the ethology of motor vehicle accidents increased. That what we are living in certain Nunavik communities. As a matter of fact , too many people don’t have a proper drivers license, and don’t know how to properly drive, impaired mixed in for a disaster. It’s the coop members we see too often, worst case lying on a stretcher waiting for the Quebec challenger for a quick needed flight to south. Many get a beer or two in, and it’s a threat to the community and everyone on the road, not to say even if you’re in your house, a knockdown electric pole could fall on you , from the game of drunks driving into poles.
The police should do surprise roadblocks. i m sure , they can nail 10-20 people a night.
Major crime is down because the criminals are locked away or on conditions. Road-related incidents are up because people simply do not know how to drive.
Yep , you see that , some people, zip threw stop signs as if they dont know what the sign means.
Stop signs all too often means heaven, hell, of whatever you believe is a few feet beyond the stop sign. People learning how to drive should be taught that if you don’t stop at the sign, you sign your soul into the afterlife, but worse, you may sign someone else into the after life as well. Starting as little tots , and continuous to immature big people, so many people are not aware of their own shallow.
Jail is a revolving door. Each day someone is taken in, someone is released. Most jail sentences are provincial (less than 2 years) and people can get released on parole in a short time. Even longer sentences in federal penitentiary have an end and inmates can get early release on parole. So no, it’s not because some people are in jail that it decreases crime rates, it’s quite the contrary according to StatsCan as the incarceration rate of Indigenous people is increasing each year but overall violent crime rates haven’t decreased over the years.
Hopefully, this year’s decline is a long term tendency and the cause may be more community involvement and more prevention.
Yes oh yes, The police tell of the stats. Has anyone at the kRG table asked any questions to the police, on what they’re doing to what’s taking place in our communities with impaired drunks? Small community, even the larger one of kuujjuaq, the number of drunks on the road is an epidemic. If I go to the store , the post office, or just for a drive , I encounter at least two drunk drivers at any time of day. As the evening goes on it’s too dangerous to be out. Most times not a police car in sight. And we have to listen to the foolishness of the Nunavik police services telling kRG about an increased in accidents. KRG should wake themselves up also, and challenge the police services on what they are doing when all theses drunks driving around. Zero tolerance, it’s not that difficult to stop drunks driving in our small communities. We don’t want to hear about Nunavik police services report unless it contains real action on what they’re doing. And if they can’t do the job , get another job.
It’s all about, not the drink, but the drinKer. It’s expensive to buy beer, and then the expensive experience of paying off a loan for a new truck, and the truck is no longer drivable. Plus the, at fault driver, dealing with court, and many times the injury of self and others. Expensive beer and joy ride. Maybe crime is down and vehicle road accidents are up, because the otherwise action group are behind the wheel, but wait until they have no more vehicle. They’ll be still drinking beer, bumming rides, walking with pack of beer on their back, and leading up to play by play contributing to putting crime stats up, up again, for next Nunavik police report to krg. A swing in the wrong direction. Beer.
Many if not most of the communities are literally dysfunctional in Nunavik, due to boozing unhealthily. Why didn’t the police services give out alcohol related crime, and motor vehicle accidents. Plus give out the injuries caused by these behaviours to show just how numbers are correlated to booze and behaviour, again dysfunctional.
Nunavik is not only dysfunctional due to booze and drugs, but Nunavik has become a burden on the Quebec government, and Quebec population. It’s a denied fact. Right from the smallest to the largest communities, right down to ullvik, and to all the services that’s trying to be applied, Nunavik is a burden that won’t go away. This includes housing. Bill 96, would not even be an issue if it wasn’t for this burden. My view is that the Quebec government knows better then allowing any change in that bill for Nunavik. What’s sad is that Nunavik’s good people, and there’s most like that, they are the ones to suffer, due to the overwhelming behaviour caused by too many, affecting all. I think deep down, the government finds it difficult to deal with Nunavik.
Here’s one for you, Nunavik police services: what about doing something about the old cars and trucks going around, posting danger to the public roads? You see half bodied vehicles, twisted out of shape, no lights or windows with the latest garbage bag that fish was shipped in from out of town, speeding, packed full of drunks, weed smelling, toilet paper spots left on the road from female pee breaks every 500 feet. That’s the accidents that you are discussing. Go get them off the road, and have the excuses for a vehicle moved to the dump and destroyed. Otherwise, after the umteem times of accidents the old crap pieces of junk, is hidden behind the house , while the driver recovers in hospital, jail, or a funeral again for the young and senseless. One for the municipality: tax them old beat up vehicles behind houses and shacks, they look like they were in a war and ran over by a big tank ten times. Make the keeper of said eye sores pay a tax on it.