A month’s worth of community feedback is giving the Turner Valley RCMP the information it needs to plan for the future.
Turner Valley RCMP Staff Sgt. Laura Akitt teamed up with High Country municipalities to post an online survey throughout March that asked questions centred around people’s perceptions of public safety in their community, how they feel about certain issues and how policing could be improved upon. Akitt said the feedback will give her direction as she works on this year’s annual performance plan.
The survey received 198 responses from residents in Black Diamond, Longview, Millarville, Turner Valley and the surrounding Foothills County with the majority stating they feel safe in their communities but would like to see an increase in police presence and a decrease in property crime, Akitt said.
“The community would like to see the members more,” she said. “My members are out and about on a regular basis, it’s just an awareness for them to take the extra time to stop and talk to the odd person.”
As for property crime, Akitt said that’s where she and her detachment’s nine constables and two corporals spend most of their policing efforts.
“Property crime is the majority of the work for us with people coming into the communities from outside the communities,” she said. “They’re crimes of opportunity, really, whether it’s accessing a locked vehicle or an actual vehicle theft. With our economy the way it is that doesn’t help.
“It’s looking at what have we done in the past, what’s worked and throwing it out there to the members to say there are other ways we can deal with this. What are other things we can do?”
One of the possible solutions Akitt and her team are exploring is the Community Assisted Policing Through Use of Recorded Evidence (CAPTURE) program, which was implemented in Red Deer last summer.
It enables businesses and homeowners to register their security cameras with the RCMP to assist with criminal investigations. Turner Valley Mayor Barry Crane requested a notice of motion at the March 16 council meeting to bring the program to the community due to his own concerns about property crime in the area.
“My goal is, really, to work on getting that CAPTURE program up and running in these communities,” said Akitt. “I really do see a value in it. If we can get it up and running this fiscal year it would definitely be an amazing tool for us in looking for ways to fight property crime.”
Akitt and her team are currently researching the project with hopes to get it up and running this year.
“It would entail us getting information to the community and providing the information to council and getting the buy-in from the community because it’s a volunteer program,” she said. “It will be getting that background information, figuring out how to roll it out and getting the information to the public. If it doesn’t work at the end of the day then we move on and try something different.”
Last month’s survey is the first the RCMP put out to gain feedback from the community, Akitt said.
“I’m very happy with the information and people taking the time to fill out the survey,” she said. “It was nice to hear from the communities their concerns and needs. It will be a matter of taking that input and figuring out how to incorporate this into some positive initiatives for the year.”
Rather than provide any surprises, the survey reiterated what Akitt already believed.
“It was encouraging and nice to see that people believe that the members of Turner Valley are very professional in their jobs and they’ve always been treated well and that members went above and beyond the normal to try to assist them,” she said. “It was a very positive survey.”
The RCMP detachment had initially scheduled public meetings in March to gather further input from the public in a more personalized manner, but they were cancelled due to provincial social distancing regulations. Akitt said she hopes to reschedule them later this year.
