Crime rate down, RCMP officer says

The crime rate in Olds and area is down, according to Olds RCMP Cpl. Mike Black.

“Crime's down overall,” Black said during a meeting of the Olds & District Community Policing Advisory Committee.

“Overall from a policing side of it here, last year was a very good year in terms of crime,” Black said. “It does go in trends and waves, as crime normally does, depending on what's happening with the economy and the weather.”

Black said the drug scene in Olds is “dry.”

“The drug scene in Olds right now and over the past year has, I would say, significantly dropped,” Black said.

“We've been steering a couple of really successful projects that related to a number of charges being laid,” he added. “We just finished another one here concerning a bunch of drugs seized this past week.”

Black said the major crime problem in Olds is still property theft, primarily theft of vehicles or theft from vehicles.

A lot of that occurs because people leave their vehicles unlocked and/or forget to take out or hide valuables. Instead, they're left in easy view of thieves – on the dashboard, or on the seats, for example.

Black said the crime rate in Olds and area is low compared to other places where he's been stationed before.

He attributes that to residents who are getting more and more involved in watching out for each other and reporting suspicious people or vehicles to police.

“From 2014 to 2015, not a lot of calls were received in terms of suspicious vehicles or people. And then there's a big increase for 2015, and that's good, because now the community is taking note of ‘who is this person, why is he here? I've never seen his truck here before,'” Black said.

Committee member and Olds councillor Wade Bearchell wondered what happened to the speed traps the RCMP used to set up.

Bearchell said when he first moved here 13 years ago, police used to set up a speed trap on 46th Street (Highway 27) just west of Highway 2A.

Black said they just don't have enough staff to do that anymore. On top of that, it's tougher because people tend to warn others via social media about where speed traps are, so they're not as effective as they used to be.

Nonetheless, police still set up some speed traps, he said.

“The bicycles are your best weapon, then,” a committee member said.

“They've been really effective, yeah. They've been really good,” Black answered.

“But you don't use them in the wintertime,” the councillor said.

“It's tough to put skis on them, yeah,” Black said to some laughter.

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