Just how much are Barrhead residents prepared to pay for policing services?
That is the question that comes to mind after we had a chance to listen to a discussion Town of Barrhead councillors had regarding policing during their Sept. 11 meeting.
The discussion was initiated, as you will read on Page A5 after mayor Dave McKenzie updated councillors about a meeting he and CAO Edward LeBlanc with RCMP Chief Supt. Wendel Reimer.
As part of the discussion, Coun. Don Smith suggested that the Chamber of Commerce or another business group fund a private security firm to patrol their members.
It isn’t necessarily a bad idea. When a group of businesses decided to do something similar 20 years ago, it did impact the crime rate.
It would also, as McKenzie noted have the added impact of making the RCMP more effective as it would allow them to channel some of their resources to other areas.
It also could have some unintended consequences, most notably moving the area where B&Es take place. The people who commit crimes for the most part drug addicts looking for a way to pay for their next fix.
This is a societal issue and isn’t going to change because there are more police and security guard patrols.
We agree, with McKenzie when he said the public bear a part in crime prevention. People need to make it harder for criminals and this starts with locking your homes, garages, vehicles, et cetera.
We also need to be more vigilant in helping police by being their eyes and ears. We also applaud people, who through social media report suspicious events and crimes and remind people to call the police.
Many times these groups tend to go to the lowest common denominator and become a forum to slag the RCMP.
The RCMP, like any other organization, aren’t perfect and some of the criticisms are warranted, but the vast majority are not. The ones that get us the most upset are that the police aren’t doing anything or that they no longer patrol. They are regardless of if you see them or not.
The problem is and always will be is that they have a large territory to cover over a lot of hours and a limited number of bodies to do so.
The municipalities could choose to pay for extra members or decide to go on their own and form a combined municipal police force. Both come at a considerable cost.
And from what we can tell, there doesn’t seem to be a large appetite for that from town or county councils or the residents themselves.
So that means we need to make do with what we have and the public has to take more responsibility for crime prevention. For those criticizing the police don’t patrol enough, we hope at the Sept. 25 RCMP/Rural Crime Watch public information session at the Seniors Drop-in Centre they will be among the first to volunteer for a citizens patrol.
