Organized retail theft drives property crime increase in Spruce Grove

SPRUCE GROVE -- Parkland RCMP say that cases of organized retail theft in Spruce Grove continue to rise.

According to police, these incidents have sparked a significant increase in year-over-year property crime, which has been mostly driven by a rise in thefts under $5,000. Detachment Commander Insp. Kevin McGillivray discussed the matter during his presentation to Spruce Grove Council earlier this week. He says that RCMP are aware of the situation and are working to address it.

"We've been working with loss prevention officers with different businesses here in the city to try to combat organized retail crime," said Insp. McGillivray. "We're not talking about a chocolate bar being stolen by a 12-year-old kid -- there are groups out there now that are doing organized retail theft. One of our initiatives for the year is to see if we can combat that." 

There were 367 incidents of theft under $5,000 in Spruce Grove through the first five months of the year, up from 194 incidents during the same period last year. Insp. McGillivray also notes that the increase in overall property crimes so far this year has also been driven by a rise in fraud. There have been 187 incidents of fraud so far this year, up from 102 in 2025.

"I think we've all received the phone calls or emails," said McGillivray. "I think they're looking at something going federally, but I believe that will be down the road. We're looking locally at what we can do with some of the new resourcing we're getting this coming year, what kind of dent we can put into it, but quite honestly, the big thing with these types of frauds is education."

Persons crimes have been mostly stagnant over last year's numbers, with an exception for criminal harassment, which has seen a noteworthy increase.