On July 18, Mike Ellis, the provincial minister of public safety and deputy premier for Alberta, unveiled a new plan to reduce rural crime.
With an additional $4.3 million in funding, the Alberta Sheriffs have created two new criminal surveillance units to augment work done by the RCMP and other local police services.
The two teams are geographically placed, with one in Edmonton for the northern part of the province and one in Calgary for the southern part of the province.
Each plain-clothes unit consists of a sergeant and seven sheriff members.
"We're going to do what it takes to keep Albertans safe," said Ellis.
"Crime is not welcome in any community."
Without going into specific techniques, Alberta Sheriff Superintendent Mike Letourneau says that each member of the units has "advanced" training in a variety of surveillance techniques for use in rural and urban areas.
Some of the team members have up to 17 years of experience, some with previous surveillance experience, noted Letourneau.
While the RCMP and Sheriffs, through the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team, do have existing surveillance teams, those teams are more focused on major cases and organized crime whereas the new teams will be focused on preventing rural crime that doesn't rise to that level.
"They will focus on types of cases that cause plenty of concern for rural communities," said Ellis.
"There's no safe haven for criminal activity in Alberta."
Both teams have been staffed and are operating in the province, and have been doing so for the last several weeks.
RCMP detachments and local police services identifying problem areas can put in a request to the teams, which are then assigned on a case-by-case basis.
Letourneau noted that as the teams get more engaged and the request queue gets longer, the priority will shift focus to surveilling repeat offenders and, hopefully, begin catching them in the act of committing crime.
"Albertans have a right to feel safe where they live," said Letourneau.
"Crime will not be tolerated in any capacity or place."
When asked, Letourneau noted that when the teams are working with different detachments, they will generally be assigned an investigating officer. As the team conducts its surveillance, decisions would be made at the time by the investigating officer whether or not they would move in and make the arrest if criminal acts were witnessed, or whether evidence for prosecution would be collected.
Ellis noted that crime is still among the top concerns for rural Albertans, and to date, the province has put "more than $27 million" towards boosting the Alberta Sheriff's operational capacity in order that they may assist the province's other law enforcement teams.
"Those efforts have proven to be successful," said Ellis.
The new teams are "part of a suite of measures" to make Alberta communities more safe.
"Other actions include the expansion of the Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods (SCAN) unit – which uses legal sanctions and court orders to target problem properties where illegal activities are taking place – and the expansion of the RAPID Response initiative with funding for the Sheriff Highway Patrol to train and equip members to assist the RCMP with emergencies and high-priority calls," concludes a press release announcing the additional teams.
