A community approach for crime prevention

By Adelle Ellis, Times Reporter

An increase in crime has been a growing trend within Strathmore and Wheatland County.
Some issues that were previously not much of a threat to residents before the downturn in the economy, such as vehicle scouting and break-ins – especially during the day – are now a weekly and sometimes almost an everyday occurrence.
Facebook posts about Strathmore residents watching “sketchy” people walking by their house, looking in vehicles and trying car door handles to see if the vehicles are open, and even videos of people at night attempting to break into vehicles, are becoming very common on personal pages and in the “Suspicious Behaviour in and around Strathmore” Facebook group page.
Trespassing on private property and farm land has also been on the rise, with thieves primarily stealing older vehicles and ATVs, tools and gas.
Some county residents report people trespassing on their property and asking for gas after stating their vehicles are running low. Many residents believe these people to be scouting out their properties for potential future break-ins.
“It’s a hard battle right now because the economy is down. Usually Wheatland County isn’t really victimized because we have the buffer between Calgary, which is Rocky View County. But now we’re finding the criminals are coming into the extreme rural areas because there are easy targets … people leave their vehicles open and their keys accessible,” said Dean Young, public security peace officer with Wheatland County. He added that criminals essentially come to Wheatland County to do their “shopping.”
Wheatland County held a crime prevention open house on Sept. 7 to assist residents and ratepayers to develop simple and low cost options to help protect their properties against possible theft and victimization.
Twenty-three folks took in the presentation, Harden the Target, learning about ways to securely outfit their homes and farms, and taking away tips and tricks to make their homes less of a target.
Young compared crime prevention to an onion – there are different complex layers that make it up. Different layers of crime prevention include community, fence and perimeter, signs, outer-house defences, inner-house defences, house and property alarms, and security cameras.
“The biggest things are awareness and knowledge … crime prevention isn’t that much of a costly endeavour … (it) doesn’t have to be sophisticated and high-tech,” said Young, who added that isolation is the biggest vulnerability in the county.
No matter if you live in the country on in a town, if your house is secure and guarded, and has proper signs and security precautions put in place, and your neighbour’s house doesn’t look as secure, then it can be assumed that a criminal will visit your neighbour’s house before yours.
Young stressed that taking a community approach towards crime prevention instead of a personal approach is the best way to push crime out of the county and the towns.
“The biggest thing is a sense of community and engaging your neighbours and looking at community groups out there like Citizens on Patrol and the Alberta Community Crime Prevention Association. It’s about contact – it’s communication, learning together and working together,” said Young.
According to a statistical comparison report presented to Wheatland County council during the Aug. 15 regular council meeting, from the Drumheller Provincial Detachment, for January to June 2013 to 2017, climbing trends have been seen in attempted or completed cases of breaking and entering – 14 cases from January to June 2017 compared to five during that same time frame in 2016. There were also three cases of theft over $5,000 during the same time in 2017 compared to two in 2016, and theft under $5,000 has grown to 29 cases during the same time in 2017 compared to 19 in 2016. Furthermore, possession of stolen goods has risen to five cases during the same time frame in 2017 compared to two cases in 2016, among others, for a total of 73 total property cases compared to 58 cases in 2016.
In the past several years, Young said home security tactics have increased in the county as many homes and farms have secured their properties by adding video surveillance systems and alarms, the cutting back of trees to create sight lines, and putting up no trespassing signs or signs saying there are cameras on the premises.
“Overall we don’t want to communicate that Wheatland County is not a safe community – because it truly is – but we’re seeing a little bit more of a rise in crime now. Equate that with the economy and some of the trends that go along with crime … that’s where we are,” said Young.
Although most attendees of the presentation were happy with the useful information, tips and tricks they were given, others were not so easily pleased.
One unidentified woman, whose property has been repeatedly broken into, was very defensive during the presentation. She said no matter the approaches one may take to secure their home, if someone is determined enough to break in and steal, then they will, and no amount of security measures will stop them.
With only four peace officers within Wheatland County to cover 4,500 sq/km of land and 8,000 people, it is an unfortunate fact that response to criminal activity within the county is going to take some time.
If you witness a break-in or criminal event, someone scoping out yours or another’s property, or an unknown and abandoned vehicle, do not intervene but do call 911. County residents can also call the county office to inform peace officers what is going on so they are aware and can be on the lookout.
“We rely on the citizens of Wheatland County,” said Young in response to how the peace officers will know what is going on in the county. “If you bring the community together and work together to harden the target on your neighbourhood and not just individual houses, then it keeps crime out of the neighbourhood.
“That’s what we’re trying to accomplish here in Wheatland County. (To) just get (crime) out of our county altogether or as much as we can.”