Strathmore RCMP talks crime

Times Reporter        

 

May 12 to 18 was Crime Prevention Week in Canada. While many people in the community may know a bit about the Strathmore RCMP detachment, we thought now would be a good time to learn more. Through the Strathmore detachment there are 25 members; 16 are municipal officers and nine are rural/provincial members. The detachment has one Staff Sgt. detachment commander, Kevin Reilly, an operations NCO, who is a Sgt., and three corporals, one for rural and two municipal. 

The Strathmore detachment has two specialized units: one that focuses on general investigations – these are plainclothes officers who work on serious crimes – and the other is a crime reduction unit. 

The crime reduction unit member helps with projects in town, looks at how to reduce crime in town, and also works on other projects that some of the general duty officers may not have the time to do, for example the DARE program. 

The detachment has a successful habitual offender program, which identifies habitual offenders on probation conditions, statutory release, or whatever the case may be. The program is monitored by the crime reduction unit officer to make sure the offender is abiding by their release conditions. 

“There has been a lot of success, we have a number of identified habitual individuals and approximately 50 per cent have reoffended and been dealt with and have, for whichever reason, departed the community,” said Staff Sgt. Kevin Reilly. 

The program is something that the government has tried to institute both province-wide and nationwide. Every detachment may modify how to enforce the program to fit them best and the level of success varies in each community. 

The detachment deals with 180-200 calls per week in the winter and over 250 in the summer. 

“Some are the property offenses, whether it is damage to property spray painting, graffiti, mischief to vehicles, theft from vehicles. It kills me that in that this day and age, when we have remote controls that you can lock your cars, that people park their cars in their driveway and don’t lock them,” said Reilly.

“I get that you might forget, but probably half the thefts from vehicles wouldn’t happen if people would just lock their vehicles.”

The thieves are not always out there for the purpose of stealing stuff, they just happen to be going home from their friends place and checking all the car doors. If the door opens that’s often when the thief will rummage through and take money, sunglasses or anything else that interests them.  Reilly said approximately 50 per cent of the reported car break-ins are because of people not locking their doors. 

After property offenses, the Strathmore RCMP also deals with a lot of domestic calls, which Reilly said is no different than most communities.

In Strathmore the RCMP works with Social Services, Child and Family Services, the Community Crisis Society, the Crown Prosecutor and the province to resolve issues where they can. 

The detachment has a domestic violence coordinator who deals with both the offenders and the victims. 

“Most things are geared towards dealing with the victims, we have victim services unit, but she does a lot of stuff with both the victim and the offender to try and mitigate things and make sure the Crown’s on board and knows what’s going on with both of them,” said Reilly. 

For example if someone is coming back to court saying they want the charges dropped when they shouldn’t be, they could be forced to say it for whatever reason, and that’s where the domestic violence coordinator comes in handy. She will work on finding the truth and making sure the situation is dealt with as best as it can be. 

There are a number of different things the coordinator can deal with in terms introducing different programs and alternatives to the victims or offenders to get them treatment and deal with. 

“That has been a really successful program and it certainly slowed down a lot of our domestic (calls). The serious stuff you’re always going to get, but for that meddling, or arguing that’s just gotten a little over the top it has certainly been able to work which stops the re-occurrence in those situations usually or a lot of the time. That has been a very effective program,” said Reilly. 

Another step Strathmore is taking to try to figure out ways to reduce crime is by getting members trained on bike patrols and getting them out into the community. 

“Everybody can hear and see the cars coming from a mile away, but that’s something we’re working on actively in town, trying to get the guys trained and out on bike patrols,” said Reilly. 

No one sees you coming, and even if they see you they don’t really see you as the police, said Reilly, which can be handy at times.  

By getting members out and doing bike patrols it also opens up the opportunity to interact more with the community. In the summer days, or after school it is also a way to reach out to the kids in the community, allowing them to see the member in a different light. It’s not just a police officer in a vehicle maybe waving, it’s one that they can stop and talk to and get a good impression of. 

In honour of Crime Prevention Week there are a couple of different steps and suggestions that people can take to protect themselves, their property and their family.  For example, don’t announce to the world on social media that you are leaving town for a few days, that’s like asking someone to come scout out your house. 

“When you do go away let your neighbours know so they are aware and watching your house for you,” said Reilly. 

“Get different lighting systems in your house that change and aren’t consecutive, have someone check the inside of your house and make sure somebody, whether it’s your neighbour or friend, has a key.”

As for personal safety, yes, we live in a small town, but the best way to be safe is to be aware of your surroundings and knowing where your kids are.

Reilly suggests getting your kids cell phones with GPS tracking, make sure they check in with you, know who they are spending time with, what they are doing and be involved in their lives. It can make a big difference. 

“We’re not saying restrict them completely, but there’s certainly times when you want to be cautious about what your kids are saying and what they’re doing for their sake,” said Reilly. 

“Make sure your kids are wearing helmets, make sure they fit properly and they’re tight, there’s no point in wearing a helmet that’s loose and going to fall off when they hit the ground. I think days are gone now that the kids aren’t cool for not wearing helmets.”

As for seeing suspicious activity in your neighbourhood, it can come down to common sense, and remembering not to be suspicious of everybody, but at the same time knowing when something or someone doesn’t quite look right. 

“If they see something that’s suspicious they should be calling our complaint line. We have to prioritize things and obviously we have to make sure we’re going to what’s (higher priority) but if you don’t report it, we may not get there by the time that person disappears … but at least we’re aware of it,” said Reilly. 

“It is important not to stop reporting, I am never going to say we can get to everything every time, there’s times when we’re dealing with critical situations and they take the priority and we have to sometimes not attend certain things immediately and look at attending them once we’re clear from the calls that are much more serious and maybe life threatening. If you stop reporting the stuff then we don’t know about it.”