Any police officer will tell you no matter how hard you try, you can’t be everywhere at once.
Civilian groups that help to keep an eye on things, and teach others to do the same, then, are invaluable in keeping crime rates down in any community.
In St. Albert and the surrounding areas, there are neighbourhood watch groups that help to meet that need, whether in the city itself or on a quiet country road 20 km out of town.
Francoise Meunier, the president of the Sturgeon Rural Crime Watch Association, explained her organization’s role has nothing to do with actively patrolling, but rather encouraging people to just know what’s going on around them.
“Our biggest thing is to make people aware of their surroundings: new vehicles in the area, that sort of thing,” she said. “The other thing is to be sure to observe, document and report, but never put themselves or their family in harm’s way.”
The group is made up entirely of volunteers, about 785 of them, who cover Sturgeon County in its entirety. The county is divided up into 16 zones, with a volunteer director responsible for each zone.
She said the impact isn’t always clear – RCMP rarely report back on whether their tips have resulted in arrests – but given the perception of rising crime rates around the county members feel it’s important to take the time to help alleviate the burden on local police.
“Everyone has to take a role,” she said. “We have an excellent rapport with our RCMP and their staff, but they’re worked to the max. Every little bit we can do to help them, we will do it.”
The St. Albert Neighbourhood Watch fulfils essentially the same role. Board member Dale Fetterly said the group is small, and focuses primarily on education and outreach to get neighbours talking to each other about what’s going on in their community.
He has seen firsthand an example of how talking to your neighbours and keeping your eyes open can help reduce crime. Two summers ago, a neighbour reported to him that there had been several vehicle break-ins on a street near his.
“That night I went to be and at about 2 a.m. I heard a noise outside,” he said. “I looked outside my window and saw a guy walking down the sidewalk in front of my house.”
Fetterly watched the man shine a flashlight into the truck’s cab, then call his friend over who did the same. At that point he phoned the police, who were able to catch those responsible.
One of the major initiatives the St. Albert group takes on is providing food for block parties as a way to encourage neighbours to come out and meet one another. When you know you’re neighbour’s name, he explained, you’re much more likely to feel comfortable knocking on their door and telling them if you see something suspicious in the neighbourhood.
“When neighbours look out for each other, it works,” he said.
Const. Jennifer Fraser, the St. Albert RCMP representative for Neighbourhood Watch, said groups like the ones in St. Albert and its surrounding communities are an essential part of crime prevention.
“They are committed groups of people who work hard, always looking for ways to make the communities they serve aware of ways to be safe,” she said.
She said ideally, even more people would be involved in crime prevention initiatives in the community, but on an individual level people can take simple precautions like keeping valuables out of unattended vehicles, locking up other valuables, taking part in neighbourhood functions and especially watching out for each other and reporting crime.
