A new provincial crime watch system has been launched in southern Saskatchewan, and it’s being billed as a way to inform people about what is happening in their communities.
The program is offered by the RCMP, the provincial government, the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association and the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities.
When you sign up, you indicate which RCMP detachments you want to receive notifications from. (You can receive notifications from more than one). The Estevan RCMP is one of the options. Notifications can also come from Carlyle, Carnduff, Weyburn and a host of others.
It’s similar to what exists with the Sask. Alert system. When a weather-related warning is issued, such as for extreme cold, a blizzard or a tornado, you get a notification. Now, when the RCMP wants to get something out to the public, you get an alert, a text message or an email, again, depending on what you signed up for.
It could be for something ongoing, such as a standoff or an accident that has forced the closure of a highway, or for a theft from a rural property, which is why the Weyburn RCMP sent out a notification on Monday.
If you were signed up for this new system, and you subscribed to the Weyburn RCMP feed, then you would have known about it quickly.
So we know that people will be more informed. But will it reduce rural crime, or make life in rural communities safer? That has yet to be determined.
The issue of rural crime has been a growing one for a long time. Once upon a time, rural homeowners could leave their homes unlocked and possibly even the keys in the ignition of their vehicle, and do so without any worries without being ripped off. But times have changed.
The number of rural properties and homeowners has declined over the years, and the size of the farms has increased. This has made it easier for intruders to sneak onto properties and cause problems.
Some rural RCMP detachments have closed over the years, because there aren’t enough people in those areas to warrant having a detachment.
Rural residents are now locking their doors at night or when they’re not at home. They’re more concerned about the security of the properties than ever before.
We’ve seen the reports of fuel being stolen and properties being vandalized. There have been incidents in the Estevan area, although not as many as other jurisdictions in the province.
The rural lifestyle is a wonderful one. It’s great to be away from the city, and have more privacy. But there are challenges. Isolation is near the top of the list.
We’ve seen lots of discussions on how to resolve the issue of rural crime. The RCMP is often at the forefront. There are hundreds of dedicated, hard-working RCMP officers in rural detachments and patrolling rural roads in Saskatchewan. But a lot of Saskatchewan detachments are understaffed, as the RCMP has drawn from them without fully replenishing their numbers.
It makes it harder for the officers to patrol the often vast jurisdiction areas.
More RCMP officers would go a long ways in helping people feel more secure, although if the detachments were adequately staffed, and a few more detachments were opened, it still wouldn’t fully resolve the issue, because the coverage area is so large.
It’s unlikely that crime rates will actually be reduced by this new alerting system. There’s still going to be a problem with thefts from rural properties, especially for those who continue to insist on leaving their properties insecure. Thefts and vandalism will still occur.
But this will serve as another information tool for the public. When necessary, they can know something is happening quickly, or that there has been a cluster of crimes in one area.
And if this information gets to the public a little quicker, it can possibly help with solving a crime, boosting the clearance rate for the detachment and, in turn, helping people feel a little more secure at home.
