Strathcona County residents got an inside look at policing in the county.
Thursday night (Mar.3), the RCMP and Enforcement Services hosted a virtual Town Hall meeting where they gave a presentation on policing in the county and let residents ask any questions they had.
Inspector Dale Kendall and director Tom Sutton covered the policing priorities of the county for the year. Their top three are traffic safety, crime reduction, and public engagement.
Between October and December, officers handed out 3,059 traffic tickets and 2,233 warning violations.
Overall, crime has gone down in the last year, according to Kendall. The municipal gauge for Criminal Code offenses went down 18 percent, with persons crime down 19 percent, property crime down 27 percent, and other Criminal Code offenses up 15 percent.
They've also seen a decrease in break-and-enters, vehicle thefts, and thefts under $5,000.
"We actually have quite a low crime rate in Strathcona County. This is a very safe community, but it doesn't mean that crime doesn't occur here. Of course, it does, we have the statistics that are telling us that crime is happening here, but when we look at the comparisons with other jurisdictions in different areas, we have quite a low crime rates," she said.
The most frequent call officers get is for wellness checks, which don't usually result in any charges. Instead, the officer will try to help the resident and work with them to find resources if needed.
As for public engagement, they brought back their school resource officer this year, after stopping the program for a while during the pandemic, and are trying to be out more often in the community to engage with residents.
Kendall and Sutton wrapped up their presentation by asking everyone to report any issues in the community, even if it is small, to help the police know where to monitor and help gather statistics. They also encouraged everyone to download the Alberta RCMP app to track crime in the area.