This year’s BVJ weekend was one of the busiest for police

By Lori Larsen

This year’s Big Valley Jamboree was a busy one for the police covering the event.

Members from Camrose Police Service, Calgary Police Service, Alberta Sheriffs and the RCMP participated in the policing plan for this year’s BVJ, from Wednesday, August 2 until Monday, August 7 patrolling both the camp grounds and concert site and grounds on foot, bike and in patrol vehicles.

Camrose Police Service Inspector John Corbett and Camrose Police Service Crime analyst Barb Fowler shared the policing statistics for the event.

Police made a total of 35 arrests, an increase over 2022 of 14 arrests and an increase over the past four festivals averaging 26 arrests.

Overall police dealt with a total of 152 occurrences, compared to 82 in 2022 which equates to an 85 per cent increase.

“The majority of these reported occurrences consisted of various disturbances, intoxicated subjects, theft and impaired driving complaints,” re- ported Corbett. Included in the reported occurrences were six assaults, two incidents of assault a police officer, one occurrence of sexual assault and one break and enter.

In addition police wrote 122 violation (traffic and liquor) tickets, throughout the event.

Checkstops were also conducted on a daily basis on site resulting in a total of 15 alcohol related suspensions, seven of which included impaired drivers over the legal limit.

“These are people leaving the site heading into the City of Camrose,”explained Corbett.

The BVJ policing contingent also teamed up with CPS members assigned to regular City of Camrose detail to conduct checkstops.

“Partnering with those members to assist with doing those checkstops ensures impaired drivers are not driving into the city.”

Corbett noted that Saturday night presented a larger crowd than the other evenings, accounting for the busiest moments for calls, arrests and traffic congestion.

“This year we noticed there was quite a big influx of patrons arriving on Thursday evening causing police to deal with traffic ingress and egress concerns, making sure traffic didn’t back up into the City.”

Due to the increase in day parkers arriving for the Saturday night concert, police also had to deal with the increased traffic coming in and leaving the site on Saturday.

Policing an event, as large as the BVJ, all the while ensuring the safety of Camrose residents, is a big job and requires careful planning and ongoing collaboration with the City, the promoters and all of the policing partners.

Inspector Corbett expressed his sincere appreciation to all of the members, dispatchers and staff of CPS for their professionalism, dedication and hardwork during the BVJ event and to the members of Calgary Police Service, the Alberta Sheriffs and RCMP for their continued support and partnership throughout the event.

“We simply could not do it without them.”