Cochrane RCMP handled a significant workload this summer, responding to nearly 1,400 calls in August alone, with rural areas accounting for the majority.
In August Cochrane RCMP members responded to 487 calls in town.
Insp. Dave Brunner noted that while the rural side saw 900 calls, it covers a large area, making the volume less surprising.
"Cochrane RCMP polices about 3900 square kilometres of area. So it's not that big of a jump in calls. When you think that we recently got 37,011 people in the Town of Cochrane, well, we police approximately 26,000 people in Rocky View County, and another 6000 people on Stoney Nakoda."
Out of those calls, he said 158 of those were criminal code calls.
"We're looking at things like property crimes, like all kinds of different property crimes, whether it's mischief or whatever, we had 29 of those. We also had 18 frauds. So those could be the phone stuff or actual bank account frauds, credit card, stuff like that."
"I guess the warning would be for everyone when you use your credit card, because we are very much a swipe-it type of society now, is just pay attention to your banking and make sure that you don't have debits going out of your account that aren't yours, and you get on top of it right away."
September was a bit busier, with Cochrane Mounties handling 504 calls, said Brunner.
"Again, mischief is leading the way. We had 27 calls for service regarding mischief, well being checks, we had 22 of those, and mental health calls were at 21 and well-being checks. Those can be very much related to the mental health calls."
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Brunner does note a 15 per cent decrease in the overall criminal calls for service between January to August of 2023 to January of August of 2024.
"We're happy for that, it could have a variety of things contribute to that, it could be fires and just people back traveling abroad, and more patrols, just visibility, more people out and about. So there's a lot of reasons why we see less crime and that decrease, but it can go back up pretty quick too."