It’s one of the hardest working offices of the RCMP in Southern Alberta and on May 24 the Crime Reduction Unit based in Airdrie showed how they operate. 

Alberta’s Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley, Alberta RCMP Commanding Officer Todd Shean and Rosemary Lindsay, president of the Cochrane-Foothills Protective Association, were on hand to tour the operation.

Minister Ganley touched on the government’s recent funding for Rural Crime initiatives and how that has worked so far to help reduce crimes in those areas.

Cst. Kevin Lambert has only been a part of the Crime Reduction Unit for a few weeks now, but he has already seen how it benefits the community.

“It’s been efficient, we have a really good team. We’ll come into work and we’ll identify different problems in different areas and we’ll do research, identify different targets in those areas and we’ll go out and try to locate them and essentially catch them in the act or execute warrants to get them off the street.”

Lambert goes on to say that the unit has moved quickly in terms of getting the resources they need to look into rural incidents.

SSgt. Chad Fournier, from the Didsbury RCMP, was also at the tour and says that he’s seen the benefit of the unit in his jurisdiction.

“We’ve had three investigations in the first quarter of this year and the Crime Reduction Team has been a big partner in a lot of these investigations. For the month of April, we are down 64 per cent in our property crime across the detachment.”

Fournier says that the increased support from the government has helped ease the workload for his fellow officers.

“We still have other priority offenders that we’ve targeted and it’s actually given our guys, the front line members of the Didsbury detachment, a chance to catch their breath and do more work on their current investigations as well.”

Lindsay says members of Rural Crime Watch stay on the alert to help the RCMP any way possible. 

“The Cochrane Foothills Protective Association, Rural Crime Watch, proudly supports the Crime Reduction Unit’s work and strategies," says Lindsay. "Our members act as an extra set of eyes and ears for the RCMP, providing them with information critical to their investigations. We encourage everyone to be alert. If you see something – say something. You don’t know what piece of the puzzle you may be providing.”