Olds and District Rural Crime Watch Association (ODCWA) officials are pleased that an RCMP special unit that targets prolific repeat offenders appears to have helped reduce rural crime rates over the past year.
“Anything that can be done to reduce rural crime is very important,” said Jason Leach, president of the association. “I think that the steps that the rural crime taskforce unit has taken have been a good step in the right direction. I hope they can keep the funding for it.
“The work that this unit does is very important and it frees up local officers to perform their investigations and do what they need to do, to gather the intelligence to pass on to the dedicated unit.”
The dedicated unit was launched last year in response to growing rates of rural crime. The $10-million project sees officers monitor prolific offenders and use computer analysis to look for crime patterns in rural and urban areas.
According to an RCMP report released last week, property crime rates in the province have reportedly dropped almost 10 per cent in rural areas and more than six per cent in urban areas.
“We need to keep people vigilant so when they do see something that is out of place they make sure that they call it in to the police. Officers can’t be everywhere,” Leach said, adding, “I don’t think we are anywhere near the end of rural crime and we need to keep vigilant.”
Didsbury RCMP detachment commander Staff Sgt. Chad Fournier says the dedicated unit has been helpful in bringing overall crime rates in the detachment area down by more than 40 per cent.
“We have been working closely with that unit,” said Fournier. “They come to our area quite often, sometimes on their own and sometimes by our request. They are a good resource for us to work with.
“They have been very helpful in our crime reduction of 43 per cent from 2017 to 2018. We are targeting our prolific priority offenders, enforcing the court imposed conditions.”
He said he hopes the unit will continue to operate going forward.
“There is no indication they are going to disband this unit, so I think this unit is here to stay and will hopefully expand,” he said.
Supt. Gordon Sage, assistant district officer with the RCMP’s southern Alberta district, reportedly called the downward trend in rural crime a result, at least in part, of the new program.
“It’s a reversal from an increase,” said Sage. “Previous years we’ve seen increases, so usually it takes a lot to reverse that effect. I’ve looked at the drops in the first quarter since April and it continues to drop even further.
“It’s definitely a consistent trend. If you don’t target prolific offenders, it just continues on and on. With us having the ability to target these groups, it has certainly had a huge impact.”
Almost 50 fewer home break-ins, almost 3,500 fewer thefts and more than 1,200 fewer vehicle thefts were reportedly committed in the province between 2017 and 2018.
Trevor Tychkowsky, president of the Alberta Rural Crime Watch Association, reportedly said, “It’s really dependent on the area. We’re still catching areas that are seeing increases in crime rates and I think when it’s isolated cases and we hear of six or seven break and enters, people feel the numbers are up.
“What RCMP are saying is the numbers as a whole have dropped, and that’s great to hear. That was our hopes, is that the numbers would decrease.”
Government spokesperson Jonah Mozeson reportedly said: “We believe rural Albertans deserve better and are committed to ensuring all Albertans feel safe, secure and protected in their communities.
“Our government has a comprehensive rural crime strategy to ensure rural Albertans feel their justice system protects them, their loved ones and their property.”
The ODCWA works with RCMP and other stakeholders to identify criminal activities. It covers the entire Mountain View County area.
