WATER VALLEY - Mountain View County council has been presented with the results of a survey of residents regarding crime in the Water Valley district.
University students conducted the Crime Prevention Student Project survey this spring in conjunction with the Alberta Community Crime Prevention Association and Mountain View County.
The county provided a $3,000 grant in support of the project.
A delegation of Mateya Selders and Meg Kennedy from the project appeared before council on July 3 to outline the findings and proposals moving forward.
The survey was posted on two Facebook pages: Water Valley Trading Post and the Cremona and Area Buy/Sell. It consisted of 10 questions and received a total of 56 responses.
The survey gauged such things as the degree of community involvement, victimology, accessibility to resources for prevention, perception of rural crime, and the perception of present RCMP relationship.
Sixteen respondents reported being the victim of property crime. Of those crimes, 32 per cent were thefts, 23 per cent were vehicle thefts, 14 per cent were break and enters, nine per cent were trespassing, and five per cent were poaching.
Respondents were asked if they feel crime has increased over the past three years. Eighty-nine per cent said yes.
Respondents were asked to rate the relationship between the RCMP and the community, from very strong to very weak/non-existent. The results were: very strong 1.79 per cent; strong 1.79 per cent; moderate 37.5 per cent; weak 44.64 per cent; very weak/non-existent 14.29 per cent.
The students said the major findings of the survey “illustrate an increase in the fear of crime among respondents, likely due to experiences of crime and a shared lack of faith in the RCMP.”
The students also “observed that a popular way to distribute information to other community members was through the use of social media, most specifically Facebook” and that residents use those social media platforms to “share experiences of crime, and/or stories of suspicious activity as a way to warn their neighbours.”
The students attended a Water Valley Community Association meeting in March and were told that major concerns in the community include trespassing, suspicious vehicles/persons, and poaching.
The students have put forward a proposal to create an app called “All Crime Low” in order to help address rural crime issues The app could allow users to report crime and view crime incident maps, as well as provide crime tips to police.
Goals of the app would be to “increase real-time awareness of what is going on in users’ community, allow users to be heard, creating a safe platform to share experiences of crime/suspicious activity, and allow your neighbours to watch over your property without physically being there to do so.”
The students are now gathering information on possible funding sources to be used to develop the “All Crime Low” app.
Council received the delegation report as information.
