New rural crime fighting idea coming to our area first

The RCMP’s Western Alberta District, which takes in the Peace Country, will be the first in Alberta to become part of a new initiative meant to fight rural crime.
 
The province and RCMP have set up a new data centre, where Mounties can send information about what they are investigating, rather than having to drive to back to the detachment to do paperwork.
 
Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley says having civilian employees do that instead will save a lot of time.
 
“What it does is it allows those RCMP officers to be out in their community and that means that they’re visible both to people who might be thinking about committing crimes and who are not thinking about committing crimes and want to feel safe in their communities.”
 
Assistant Commissioner John  Ferguson, who was stationed in Grande Prairie for two years, says it will only take a few minutes for Mounties to call the Data Centre about their investigations.
 
“With the members out on the road more, it increases our visibility in the community. Just our presence alone will, hopefully, deter people from thinking about committing crime.”
 
Ferguson says this should also allow for faster response times to incoming calls.
 
The Data Centres are located in Edmonton and Calgary.
 
This initiative also includes a Call Back Unit, where experienced RCMP members deal with calls that are not time sensitive or a threat to public safety. If a police response is needed, a frontline member will be dispatched.
 
Ganley is encouraging people to report all crimes.
 
“The Crime Reduction Units, the model that we’re trying to implement here, is essentially intelligence-led. What that means is that they need that information in order to be able to target the individuals because, in a lot of cases, a large proportion of property crime is committed by a small percentage of individuals.”