People in Columbia Falls fought, argued more in 2016

People didn’t get along so well in Columbia Falls in 2016. Columbia Falls Police Chief Clint Peters noted that the city saw almost a twofold increase in disturbance complaints from 2015 to 2016. The city had 48 disturbance complaints in 2015. Last year it had 91.

A disturbance, he said, is wide-ranging. It could be an verbal argument with a neighbor, a bar row, or some other dispute.

It is not a fight with family. Those are listed separately, he noted. But they were up, too.

Partner family member assaults were up from 19 to 24. Drug offenses were up, too, from 26 to 33 and fraud was way up, from 10 to 23.

The fraud offenses are usually related to drugs, Peters noted. Methamphetamine has been a problem for years, but now heroin, which is cheap, is a problem, too, he noted.

“Heroin wasn’t even around five years ago,” Peters said.

Thefts, however, were down a bit. In 2015, there were 134 thefts, in 2016, 116 theft reports.

Outright assaults were down a bit, too, from 25 in 2015 to 18.

But overall, the police were busier in 2016 than 2015. They had 350 more calls. Part of it is more people live here than they used to and summers are busy.

Last year there were 195 adult arrests, up 25 and the most in five years.

So what should you do? For one, lock your doors. Lock the doors on your car and lock the doors on your house when you’re not home.

The best defense is deterrence.

“They don’t pick places that have security in place,” Peters noted.