(Nigel Maxwell/paNOW Staff)

By Nigel Maxwell

Rural Crime

Crime Watch group goes public

Jul 10, 2019 | 12:02 PM

A couple dozen people were brought together Tuesday night at the Prince Albert Inn, to share their concerns about crime in the area.

Although being formalized in January this year, the Prince Albert Rural Crime Watch held its first public meeting. April Brown, the group’s president, explained why they have been flying under the radar.

“Last year we talked about going to the media and a lot of the members wanted to just keep it fairly quiet but I feel with the increase in crime again, just to get out there that this group is up and running,” she said.

The group largely covers the Rural Municipality of Prince Albert, between highways 2, 3, 11, and 302 East. At the meeting Tuesday night, attendees were provided with membership forms as well as information about how to best report suspicious activity.

“The more people in our community that are involved, the more crime we can help prevent,” she said.

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Eric Schmalz, the recently elected reeve for the Rural Municipality, and a former RCMP officer, talked to the crowd about some of the issues RCMP face. He mentioned a conversation he had with a current officer, and how he was told 50 per cent of crimes go unreported.

“We don’t want to have people sit on stuff, not tell the police about what’s going on in their area, because if we do that then it’s like the crime didn’t happen or the suspicious activity didn’t happen and no one knows about it so no measures can be taken to prevent it,” he said

Reeve Eric Schmalz mentioned he would like to see the creation of a citizens on patrol group, adding they have the ability often times to see things the RCMP cannot. (Nigel Maxwell/paNOW Staff)

In his address to the crowd Schlmalz also discussed the staffing shortages RCMP face, often times having a large area covered by as many as two officers. He also mentioned there is no such thing as 24/7 patrols, and how more often than not, there are no actual officers on the roads patrolling during the critical times when crimes are occurring between 3 a.m. and 8 a.m.

“The model they have doesn’t work in sparsely populated areas. It’s more reactionary, not precautionary,” he said.

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nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell