New RCMP Performance plan to target vandalism, theft
Shannon LeClair – Times Reporter
Every year the RCMP reviews and modifies their Annual Performance Action Plan, APP. Generally the survey goes out to town, county and village councils. This year they asked residents what they see as important and needs to be worked on.
The plan is like a guide to how to use pro-active time. Reactive time is anything from dealing with things such as impaired drivers, homicides and bylaw complaints.
“What we tried to do this year with the survey is get it out to the general public, to put down their thoughts and present them so we can contemplate them, while we’re developing our plan for this year,” said Staff Sgt. Larry Marzinzik. The survey stemmed from the need for more public input when it comes to what the RCMP can be doing for its communities.
The surveys went out to a number of different locations, including schools, at the beginning of March and were collected at the end of March. 219 forms were returned with 58 per cent of females participating and 42 per cent male. From this, 67 per cent were people under 18-years-old.
“We got a good response from schools and that was anyone 12 to 17,” said Marzinzik.
Strathmore composed 47 per cent of the replies, rural was 37 per cent and only 16 per cent came from unknown areas. The survey listed eight different areas of concern and offered participants a chance to add anything they felt was missing. The questions included ‘what types of crime impact your neighbourhood?’ and ‘what activities do you feel your police should focus on?’
The top three priorities that came from the numbers are vandalism, drugs and theft.
“That comes in line with what we have been seeing in some of our past statistics,” said Marzinzik.
“Vandalism and theft have been on a bit of an increase in town and the rural areas, so that may be good that it’s been brought up as a priority and that it falls in line with what our statistics are showing and that maybe we need to try to focus on a few different things to bring those statistics down and raise awareness in the communities.”
The five areas which will be targeted through the new APP will be vandalism, drugs, theft, traffic and client services. Vandalism will be a priority: there will be goals and objectives to try to bring down the incident rates and also to raise awareness in the communities.
Theft in Strathmore and rural communities is more a crime of opportunity, said Marzinzik.
“I call them midnight shoppers, they come along and don’t necessarily damage anything but they try the door and if it’s open, what’s in there they may take”
The third main area the RCMP are planning to focus on is drugs. Last year it was a priority to focus on overall addiction and they are still going to do a general targeting of that area, but plan to focus mainly on illicit drugs such as cocaine and marijuana.
“That doesn’t say we neglect any of the other areas, we will still be enforcing the open alcohol in vehicles and public intoxication, that type of thing, we’re going to focus our proactive work, where we set up little projects and programs to these three areas.”
Traffic will always be a main priority and there is a monthly plan made for different areas, which targets drivers. Finally, for client services, the RCMP would like to maintain a good relationship with the members of the communities they serve.
Marzinzik is hoping to have the survey out earlier next year and have focus groups or town hall meetings to follow up on the results of the survey.