A small group of people is behind a big increase in police calls to Port Clements in the past year, Sgt. Blake Ward told the village council Monday night (April 15).Going over policing statistics for the 2012-13 year, Sgt. Ward pointed to a 37 percent jump in calls for service from Port. The number of calls rose to 130 in the most recent year, from 95 in 2011-12. In contrast, calls for service from Masset and Old Massett dropped in the past year.Sgt. Ward said he prefers to consider general trends rather than statistics, which can be misleading. But he called the numbers from Port a clear trend, and a troubling one."It is a significant amount," he told council members. "We have an increase here in activity related to the drug trade."Sgt. Ward said the problem-causing drug in Port Clements is cocaine. Drug use is closely connected to many other crimes, he said, such as assault, domestic violence, and theft. Police have definitely noticed an increase in drug use across the entire detachment area, he said, and a corresponding increase in assaults."A lot of our assaults involve individuals who are looking for drugs, are looking for money for drugs, or are on drugs," he said.However, councillor Kazamir Falconbridge said that he believes Port is a safe community with a low crime rate, and objected to Sgt. Ward's interpretation of the numbers to indicate that crime is a problem.Mr. Falconbridge said the real story behind the numbers should be that Port has the lowest crime rate in the detachment, not that Port has seen the biggest increase in calls for service.Highlighting the crime trend might discourage people from moving to Port, he said, and the village would really like to attract a bigger population."The crime rate per capita is very low here, lower than the other communities on island," he said.Sgt. Ward agreed that Port is a relatively safe community. But he also warned Mr. Falconbridge that new residents can bring new problems. Some of the problems that Port has experienced over the past year are due to people who moved there recently, he said.Sgt. Ward's quarterly policing report does not include per capita crime statistics, but the Observer combined Statistics Canada 2011 population figures with the 2012-13 police statistics for the three communities in the Masset detachment to come up with the following.Port Clements has a population of 378, and had 130 calls for service to the RCMP in the past year. That works out to 34 calls for every 100 people.Old Massett has a population of 614, and had 271 calls for service, which works out to 44 calls for every 100 people.Masset has a population of 884, and had 975 calls for service. This works out to 110 calls for every 100 people.