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RCMP provide tips for citizens to help cut crime

Coffee, Cake and Crime attracted about 30 people
MVT coffee cake crime RCMP Olds
Staff Sgt. Jim MacDonald speaks during a coffee with RCMP event at the Olds Auction Mart Cafe on Jan. 22. Noel West/MVP Staff

OLDS — About 30 people came out to the Olds Auction Mart Café on Jan. 22 for Coffee, Cake and Crime, a two-hour presentation plus question and answer session by Olds RCMP.

The event was jointly organized by Olds RCMP, the Olds-Sundre-Disbury Rural Crime Watch Association, Torrock Towing and the Olds & District Chamber of Commerce.

Staff Sgt. Jim MacDonald, the commanding officer of Olds RCMP detachment, led the discussion.

In essence, he told the crowd that over the past three years, crime within the detachment has gone up, down and up again as offenders are caught, jailed and released.

He cited some stats:

Eighty-five break and enters (B&Es) occurred in Olds in 2017, 40 in 2018, and 45 in 2019.  The rural area saw 92 B&Es in 2017, 67 in 2018 and 67 in 2019.

A total of 258 thefts occurred in Olds in 2017, 195 in 2018 and 239 in 2019. The rural area saw 155 in 2017, 113 in 2018 and 126 in 2019.

A total of 100 vehicle thefts occurred in Olds in 2017, 62 in 2018 and 117 in 2019. In the rural area 67 occurred in 2017, 39 in 2018 and 55 in 2019.

MacDonald said the RCMP are working hard to reduce crime both in Olds and surrounding rural areas, but they need residents’ help.

He said one key way residents can do that is to report any suspicious activity.

He cited the recent example of an armed robbery in Cremona where three suspects were caught when transported to the McDonald's restaurant in Olds by a suspicious driver who picked them up when their vehicle ended up in the ditch.

MacDonald said residents can also help by locking their doors and their vehicles as well as keeping valuables out of sight.

He said one reason Olds and area seems to be targeted by thieves is that the community seems to have a reputation for having trusting residents who tend not to lock doors or vehicles. 

MacDonald also said tempting as it might be to chase after thieves if they steal your vehicle, don’t do it. It’s not only unsafe for you, but also for others.

He stressed that many of these suspects are high on meth or other drugs and thus tend to act impulsively or irrationally and aren’t concerned at all about the ramifications of what they do. They just want to steal the goods and get away.

“People get very emotional – and rightfully so – when somebody comes onto their property, either to break into their house or to steal their property,” MacDonald said in an interview.

“But at the end of the day, we never want a person to put their own safety in jeopardy or anybody else’s safety in jeopardy by trying to protect their property.

“Because property has a certain value and most of it can be replaced. But your own safety and certainly the lives of you, your family and other people, you can’t as easily replace – or you can’t replace those things.

“Not only could they put themselves at risk of being hurt by those people, if they’re chasing the people who stole the vehicle, they’re not necessarily going to be obeying traffic laws or looking out for people in intersections or other vehicles or pedestrians.

“And we don’t want to see that situation where, suddenly they go through that intersection – either the stolen vehicle or the person chasing the stolen vehicle – and that mom with her kids in the mini van on her way to daycare crosses the intersection and gets struck by either vehicle and people get killed.”

During the event, MacDonald introduced Cst. Morley Statchuk, the detachment’s new community resource officer.

Statchuk’s job is to work with schools and provides communication to news media and the public.

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