Lacombe County is giving local Rural Crime Watch groups a financial boost to help them stay afloat.
County council approved bumping up an annual operating grant to $1,000 from $500. As well, the county will offer to offset the cost of alert fan-outs, which run around $700 a year and often covered by membership fees.
The goal of the extra financial help is to keep active the two Rural Crime Watch groups in the county, Medicine River Rural Crime Watch and Red Deer/Lacombe Rural Community Crime Watch, said Mark Sproule, Lacombe County’s community peace officer services manager.
“We recognize the value in those Crime Watch groups,” said Sproule. “They’re the eyes and ears of our community and we just want to do a little bit extra to support them in the work they’re doing.”
In the past few years, Crime Watch groups have struggled. In central Alberta, volunteer-led groups in Rimbey, Clearwater County and Ponoka dissolved and the Medicine River branch came very close last fall before being rejuvenated.
A Battle River group also disbanded with their area now covered by the Red Deer/Lacombe group.
“It’s that ongoing struggle,” said Sproule. “We want to encourage people to sign up and be a part of those Rural Crime Watch groups. It’s through building community and a network of crime prevention individuals that we can really tackle and go after the crime in our communities.
“Getting people engaged, keeping an eye out, getting to know their neighbours, there’s so much value in these groups and we really want to see them continue.”
By covering the cost of sending out updates and alerts to Crime Watch members through fan-outs, groups will have the option of dropping membership fees to hopefully lead more rural residents to join. Besides scaring off potential members, fee collection has become a big administrative burden for many groups, he said.
“Whether they choose to (drop membership fees) or not, at least they have an option and the county is supporting them.”
Besides the funding help, the county is working with the groups to help provide them information and other help when needed, he said.
Ken Wigmore, president of the Red Deer/Lacombe Community Rural Crime Watch, said membership costs $25 for three years. One of the biggest problems is keeping the fan-out email lists up to date and removing emails that are no longer being used.
Wigmore said the group is at the point where it needs to take stock of where it fits in with rural crime prevention efforts.
“The biggest problem with Crime Watch is finding out its relevance. Do people want it? Yes or no? Is it worth signing up? Do they like the information?
“That’s our challenge.”
While RCMP have resumed providing weekly updates on criminal activity, the information is old by the time it gets passed on to members, he said.
Despite the challenges facing the group, the show of support from Lacombe County is welcomed.
“It now gives us direction so we now know that the county is behind us, and we think Red Deer County has been behind us for quite a while,” he said.
“Now it will be a case of we better get our rear in gear and figure out how we’re going to operate and do this.”
Red Deer County provides the group $1,000 a year. Wigmore wants to see a Red Deer County councillor to join the board, which already has two representatives from Lacombe County.
As municipal representatives, county councillors’ voices carry some weight and they provide useful links with RCMP, he said.