Crime in the Village of Clyde is at its lowest in four years.
Noting the numbers are in line with trends across Alberta, Westlock RCMP Staff Sgt. Al Baird delivered the good news at council’s Feb. 11 meeting alongside requesting they complete an annual performance plan (APP), which councillors opted to discuss at their next meeting.
“We’re looking for input from councils for anything they might see that is of particular interest. It lists the priorities for each community,” said Baird of the performance plan.
“We started it last year. It included enhanced road safety through education and enforcement and part of it was to prevent and reduce the threat and impact of serious and organized crime. Also, one that was given to us was also to look after membership’s health and well being.”
Measuring from January to November, person crimes such as assault, sexual assault and harassment were down to two — both of which were assaults — from nine in 2017, five in 2016 and seven in 2015.
Property crimes, which cover files like theft, break and enter and fraud, were down to 10 from 15 in 2017, 26 in 2016 and 17 in 2015. In both cases, the amount of crime reported was the lowest in four years.
Part of the department’s success, Baird noted, is the increased frequency of pulling over drivers.
“We get out there and stop vehicles for all the offences we can find. That has a couple benefits, not only is it detecting traffic enforcement, but once we have a person stopped on the roadside the member can check and now we’re finding outstanding warrants, stolen property, weapons and drugs,” he said. “So from that small traffic safety initiative to reduce speeds and bad driving, we also pick up these things. So they’re very intertwined.”
Another tactic police have stepped up is checking up on people with probation orders, or released on bail, sometimes multiple times a night. Baird noted the sense that police are keeping tabs on people is a deterrent in itself.
Police are also seeing early results from switching to the Alberta First Responders Radio Communications System (AFRRCS), which allows radio communication that is scrambled to devices like police scanners.
“It’s a really great radio system. I can stay on a channel and no matter where I go I can talk back to Westlock,” said Baird.
“Now communications is such that people don’t know we’re even around. A lot of times we were catching bad guys who had a mobile scanner with them as they were committing an offence.”
Recalling a case in December where a late-night break-in at the Westlock Kubota was foiled by a hired security patrol, Baird noted police cannot respond to complaints they don’t receive and urged council to remind residents to call RCMP if they are the victim of a crime or see any sort of suspicious activity.
“If you don’t call there’s a 100 per cent chance we won’t catch them,” he added. “If you at least call, we have a chance.
“Lots of times we have property sitting in our lot and we know it’s stolen from somewhere, but we don’t know who it’s stolen from, so without someone calling in it makes it extremely difficult to get the property back to them and it gets disposed of.”
