Volunteer members of the Olds-Sundre-Didsbury Rural Crime Watch Association could soon be conducting daytime and nighttime patrols in the region, says president Gerald Ingeveld.
In response to many break and enters and vehicle thefts across the region in recent months, members are considering a return to the patrols, he said.
"It's something we are considering and are looking at," said Ingeveld. "There's been several community meetings, including at Eagle Hill and Bergen, all with people talking about what are we going to do. We are getting just robbed out here."
He discussed the matter at the association's recent monthly meeting in Mountain View County council chambers and spoke to the Gazette about it further last week.
"With rural crime watch it has always been, keep your eyes open when you are out and about and watch for suspicious activity and report it," he said. "The citizens on patrol is where you actually receive some training and you go out to particular places and actually look for stuff."
The association actually began in the 1980s as Range Patrol, "and then it morphed into more of a watch kind of thing," he said. "There seems to be some fire and some energy to fire back into the actual patrolling stuff again."
Volunteer patrol members would travel roads in the district, photographing and recording details about suspicious vehicles and persons, he said.
"Mostly it would be nighttime patrols because that seems to be when a lot of stuff seems to be going on, but there could be some daytime stuff as well," he said.
"The idea is everybody's got a phone with a camera on it, so you're going by and there's a car on the side of the road, just snap a picture that has the licence plate on it."
The information collected would be given to the police, he said.
Association officials have been in discussions with RCMP officials regarding the patrols, he said.
All patrolling volunteers would receive some training from the police and would be in contact with police when starting each patrol, he said.
"Anyone going on patrol would check in with the RCMP before going out," he said. "There is an app that works off an iPad where you would check in with the RCMP.
"They would then know who you are and that you are going out and what areas you are visiting and it would track your progress."
The volunteers would be unarmed and would not be making any citizens' arrests, he said.
"It's fairly simple training, letting people (the volunteer patrol members) know that you are not trying to arrest anybody and you are avoiding putting yourself in danger," he said.
Ingeveld, who is also on the provincial rural crime watch association board, says he foresees member patrols becoming commonplace across rural Alberta.
"I believe it is going to happen provincially," he said. "Things seems to be worse in this number 2 (QE II) corridor between Calgary and Edmonton; that seems to be where the worst is. The criminals seem to fan out and go anywhere. People who are stealing are very mobile now."
Olds-Sundre-Didsbury Rural Crime Watch works with police and other stakeholders to prevent and reduce crime in the region, including throughout Mountain View County and in parts of Red Deer County.
The group conducts workshops and has a call-out system for reporting crime.
"It's something we are considering and are looking at."Gerald Ingeveld
