Car thefts, break and enters, stolen property, vandalism. This year seems to be notably bad for property crime not only in Cochrane but around the province. It's hard to log on to social media lately without seeing someone lament being the latest victim or watching videos of prowlers checking car doors and peeping in windows. Last week, on Facebook's notorious Cochrane Rants and Raves page someone from the UK alleges they decided to change plans to relocate to Cochrane because the crime here is too bad. While that might be more perception and publicity, there is no doubt crime in the province is on the rise, which doesn't bode well for the poster's chances of finding a crime-free Alberta community. In fact, according to the latest Statistics Canada Crime Severity report, crime is up virtually across the country. Newfoundland, British Columbia and Prince Edward Island were the only jurisdictions where crime rates fell. Here in Alberta, the province was tied for third with Ontario among the nine provinces that recorded an increase in crime rates. Unsurprisingly, the change was fuelled by increases in property crime - which has been heavily supported by anecdotal evidence. While Cochranites decry the increases in property crime, those living in rural areas have been hit particularly hard. The prairie provinces account for nearly 50 per cent of all rural crime across the country - Alberta took the lion's share of the problem, recording 21 per cent of the nation's rural crime. With numbers like that, it's not hard to believe that 38 per cent of crime is reported in rural areas of this province. This year's increase also effectively erases the downward trend in provincial crime rates since 2002 and puts the province's crime rate at its highest since 1998. Alberta has tried to combat the spike in crime by adding more officers and emphasizing rural enforcement through the creation of regional task forces. Almost daily, news releases featuring another arrest point to success – recently RCMP released figures boasting the new Rural Crime Reduction Unit was closing in on 300 arrests and laid hundreds of charge.s However, it's way too early to celebrate and as officers work through the increased number of case files, more and more people report being victimized. We can speculate on what is driving the increase in crime - the lagging economy is a logical factor. For the rural areas, remoteness makes for easy targets and police can't patrol every back road in Alberta. Aside from waiting for the economy to complete its rebound, there are proactive measures everyone can take, such a as securing property. More importantly is to build a sense of community. Too often in these busier times, people are consumed by the day-to-day grind and they don't have the chance to know their neighbours or are not around enough to watch out for each other. More and more, community watch programs are sprouting back up to help add eyes and ears for the police. It is that proactive community effort that will help more than any number of police officers ever could. While our province's police forces are vital and do great work keeping our communities safe, that goal is all of our responsibilities.
