By Shaun Penner/Curtis Galbraith

County Crime Hike

County crime outbreak leads to funding for two additional RCMP officers

Aug 13, 2019 | 10:00 AM

A rash of crimes in the west part of the County of Grande Prairie has prompted a request for more help from the Beaverlodge RCMP detachment.

Detachment Commander Ash Browne asked County Council Monday to pay for two more enhanced RCMP officers. Council approved spending $330,000 to do this for the rest of this year and all of 2020.

The area has seen an alarming rise in property related crime during the first quarter of 2019, with cases of theft over $5000 increasing by 900% when compared to a five-year average. Break and enter crimes have also doubled, while offensive weapons cases have shot up 250%.

Browne says area residents are very concerned for their properties, and their personal safety.

“When we did a Town Hall meeting, which was in June in Hythe at the Legion, there was not only people that were afraid to leave their properties, for fear of somebody coming to steal, but they were also scared for their own personal safety.”

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The money is budgeted for $165,000 per new officer. Council stressed the importance to Browne during deliberations that the officers, which will be paid for by the County, need to be focussed on doing their work in the County and would not fade into a general duty role within the Beaverlodge detachment.

Browne stressed that their role would be to create more of a presence in the rural areas that are most affected.

“Those members become the eyes and ears in the area. So, we’ll still have regular detachment members who are call takers,” said Browne. “What the enhanced do, is they’re job duties are under a Memorandum of Understanding, where they actually have mostly patrol functions.”

Councillors shared during deliberations the sheer number of their constituents, who are in fact too scared to leave their property unattended. Browne noted that one property had been broken into eight times in a two-week span earlier this year.

Efforts have been made by RCMP in recent months to try and combat the alarming rise in crime rates, such as using a bait ATV on a property that had also seen a rash of break-ins. It took all of two hours to arrest two suspects who tried to steal the quad.

Browne says that finding more innovative ways to combat crime are a top priority. But he adds that in the meantime, vigilante justice is not the answer.

“When members of the public, during our town hall meeting, were so frustrated that they were saying ‘What do we do next? We’re going to start taking out our guns, before we call the police’, I think that is really frustrating for us,” said Browne. “But it is concerning for me and if I lived out in that area, I’d be concerned, and I would want to see police out there.”

Currently, the County of Grande Prairie has 6 enhanced officers (four work out of Beaverlodge and two out of Grande Prairie). The County will now be applying for the additional officers to be stationed here, with no exact timeline for when the new officers would arrive.