The Sylvan Lake RCMP detachment held a Town Hall, March 14 at the NexSource Centre to help encourage community engagement with around 40 to 50 people in attendance.
The session was lead by Sgt. Stephanie Lesyk the operations NCO for the Sylvan Lake detachment with the assistance of Sgt. Dan Martin.
During the town hall the priorities for the Sylvan Lake detachment brought forward included a survey, Project Lighthouse, enhanced road safety and community relations.
The brief anonymous survey can be done on a mobile device, laptop or desktop computer, the Sylvan Lake detachment said.
“The survey affords community members the ability to provide meaningful feedback, help us identify policing priorities and engage with the communities we serve.”
Project Lighthouse is meant to assist in crime reduction and is where offenders are held under a strict compliance on the conditions of which the court imposes when they are released, the Sylvan Lake detachment said.
“The condition can be curfews, no contact with certain individuals and not to attend certain locations for example. If found breaching one of these conditions, these individuals are arrested, charged and held for a Judicial Interim Release hearing where they can be released again into the community or held for court.”
For the enhancement of road safety the RCMP implement immediate roadside sanctions, the Sylvan Lake detachment said.
“An increase in written warnings to provide education and meet vehicle equipment regulations have been done and an enforcement priority for the Sylvan Lake detachment includes enforcing impaired and distracted driving.”
For the final priority of community relations, hosting town halls like the one last week is a great way to increase community relations, the Sylvan Lake detachment said.
“Town halls allow for the sharing and gathering of information, much like the survey, helping us identify areas to focus on in the future.”
A power point was reviewed showing the coverage area including Lacombe County, Red Deer County, Bentley, Benalto, Eckville and the summer villages. The presentation also gave an overview of calls, types of calls and the workload.
The 2022 stats showed that municipal calls were down from 6,189 in 2021 to 4,775 in 2022 while rural calls were slightly up with 1,960 calls made in 2021 and 2,004 calls made in 2022.
Persons crimes and property crime were also discussed with the numbers being down compared to the prior year.
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