By Aaron Mahoney (@Mahones93 on Twitter) with files from Lara Fominoff (@LaraFominoff on Twitter)

Picture Butte RCMP Sergeant floating idea of Rural Crime Watch Association

May 7, 2018 | 6:00 AM

PICTURE BUTTE – Following a string of rural crime in Alberta over the past few months, RCMP Sergeant Tom Howell with the Picture Butte RCMP is holding a meeting on Monday, May 7th to see if there’s interest in forming a Rural Crime Watch Association.

Howell says the recent case against an Okotoks man has once again raised the awareness of crime against rural Albertans, and the limits on protecting their property.

“I think that we have to be realistic about the cost of policing these days, and how many officers we can actually afford to have out there in these rural areas. We can’t have a police officer on every corner or be covering every rural road at any given time, it’s just not feasible,” Howell said.

And that’s where the Crime Watch Association comes in, as a number of them have been established in various parts of the province already just not in Southern Alberta.

“Police cannot do crime prevention on their own, it has to involve the community. By working together, we can put a bigger effort forward to maybe reduce crime. I’m looking forward to seeing if people will step forward to form this association alongside the police,” Howell said.

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The question of how the association would work depends on the interest, but Howell says in the past the crime watch was set up where people were actually doing patrols in the area, but that’s not the way it’s set up now.

“There was a recent memorandum of understanding between the RCMP at the provincial level and the provincial rural crime watch for Alberta,” he continued. “If people see or hear about crimes that aren’t being reported, they should be reported, that’s basically what we’re looking for in these associations.”

“We want people paying more attention to their daily surroundings, and if they see anything they find suspicious to report it to police,” Howell added.

The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. at the Picture Butte Community Seniors Complex.

If the association forms, it would be within the Picture Butte/Lethbridge County areas.

Should the interest be there, Howell says at that point a board of directors or a committee would be established to decide how they’re going to form the whole association and how a membership drive would be made.

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