SUBSCRIBE: Missing news on social media? Subscribe to CHAT News Today's DAILY newsletter and stay up to date with your city.

County of Forty Mile hopes crime watch group will become reality

Mar 8, 2018 | 7:45 PM

 

BOW ISLAND – As concerns over increasing rural crime spread, some residents, towns and counties are looking to take preventative action.

The County of Forty Mile helped host a meeting Thursday afternoon in Bow Island, to discuss the formation of a rural crime watch group.

Over 30 people including residents, county and municipal representatives as well as RCMP attended.

Steve Wikkerink, the Reeve for the county of Forty Mile, said they haven’t seen a big increase in rural crime, but are concerned as they’re seeing it spread.

“What we were hearing from municipalities beside us and the amount of rural crime that they were seeing, and we were starting to hear a bit of it creeping into our county this winter,” he said. “We knew it was time we needed to do something.”

“Our local detachment for RCMP is not always manned, just because of staffing and time off and all that,” Wikkerink explained. “We’re minimum an hour away from an RCMP response.”

It’s part of the reason the County and the RCMP have teamed up in an effort to get residents involved in creating a rural crime watch group.

“If we can work together with our rate payers, with the RCMP, with the rural crime watch association, we just think this is going to be a big benefit and increase safety,” said Wikkerink.

There are around 3,500 people living in the county, plus those living in Bow Island and Burdett and Foremost. RCMP have to cover an area that’s approximately 7,200 square kilometres.

Constable Matthew Kennedy said it’s a massive area for officers to try and cover and having a crime watch group would be a huge asset for RCMP and residents.

“So I can kind of be everywhere at once without having to put a thousand miles on,” said Kennedy.

“We want to make sure everyone in the community knows how to proceed with dealing with the RCMP, with learning tips and tricks to keep their property safe and going from there.”

Member of Parliament Glen Motz said crime watch groups are making a difference in their communities.

Having helped start a Rural Crime Task Force in the province, Motz said he’s seeing the impact and spread of rural crime all across Alberta.

He said they help not only reduce crime, but inform land and property owners of their rights in those circumstances.

“This is about educating themselves, taking care of themselves and their neighbours and their property,” said Motz. “You can never go wrong working as a community to improve crime prevention initiatives.”

The task force has received over 200 recommendations from crime watch groups and others in the province on ways to help reduce crime.

“We’re going to be digesting those over the next coming weeks and determining our next steps with that information so we can apply it and see what we might be able to do at a federal level,” Motz said.

Wikkerink said he’s hopeful residents in the County of Forty Mile, will be able to form their own crime watch group so if crime rates do go up in their areas, they have a system running to help address it.

“We’re trying to be proactive before we get a lot of crime,” Wikkerink said.

The provincial government is also making a promise to do something to address increases in rural crime.

In the Throne Speech Thursday, the NDP said they will be putting money towards helping fight back against it.

“This includes investing in new bait-and-tracking technology, including technology related to farm equipment,” the statement read. “New measures to help police spend less time on paperwork and more time on the street, and putting boots on the ground where they’re needed most to protect families.”

Further details are expected to be released at a press conference Friday morning.