Olds RCMP commanding officer Staff Sgt. Jim MacDonald is pleased with an announcement by the provincial government that it plans to spend more money and provide more resources to battle rural crime.
The provincial government announced it plans to spend $10 million to hire more RCMP officers, civilian staff and Crown prosecutors in the province.
The seven-point action plan includes $8 million for 39 new officers, 40 civilian staff and $2 million to hire the additional Crown prosecutors.
"This strategy will help reduce rural crime by putting resources where they’re most needed," a government news release said.
"Measures are also being introduced to ensure police have the resources needed to address their top priorities. These steps include focusing on intelligence and sharing information to help police better identify and catch prolific offenders, and shifting some routine tasks to civilian workers so officers can spend more time patrolling and investigating in the community."
The strategy includes the following steps:
- Specially trained officers will focus on arresting prolific offenders. This initiative will expand on a successful pilot project in Central Alberta.
- Specialized police intelligence: Six additional intelligence-focused RCMP officers plus four crime analyst positions will allow the RCMP to identify prolific offenders and target organized crime.
- Twenty-three civilians will input investigative updates dictated over the phone by officers.
- More Crown prosecutors: $2 million will allow the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service to hire up to 10 Crown prosecutors who will focus solely on rural crime.
- Better coordination: Sharing information with Alberta sheriffs, Fish and Wildlife Enforcement, Commercial Vehicle Enforcement and conservation officers will effectively make these officials additional “eyes and ears” for police.
- The RCMP will work with Alberta Justice and Solicitor General and other partners to explore new ways of using technology to target rural crime, including bait programs.
- Public education and engagement: The RCMP will engage and educate Albertans about crime prevention.
"The development of the crime reduction team is a big step forward as it allows officers to dedicate their attention on those prolific offenders that are responsible for much of the rural crime," MacDonald told the Albertan.
"Unfortunately, with the increased crime rate and call volume over the last year, members here in Olds have only had time to respond to many of the property crimes after they have been reported.
"Much of their time is also spent on many other matters requiring police attention such as collisions, domestic violence calls, death investigations, sexual assaults. These other responsibilities also consume significant investigative time," he adds.
"The new crime reduction team is more focused in its mandate of crime reduction. The team is pro-active in its approach to target, monitor and apprehend offenders often before they can commit more crimes."
MacDonald says the new unit "has already been quite active in the Olds area."
"One of our own detachment members has been temporarily assigned to the team and this is a great benefit for us because he knows the area and many of the repeat offenders," he adds.
MacDonald says the policing support will provide great support for front-line police officers.
"Policing involves a lot of report writing and data entry so I'm hopeful that this new unit will result in more time for our members to be on the road and conducting quality investigations. No one becomes a police officer to sit behind a desk, so this will be a great new resource," he says.
