We had a great Community Safety meeting last night with about 130 residents coming out to see what is happening and how we can make our community safer.

Sargent Barry Kennedy from the Chase RCMP detachment began the evening giving us some info about what has been happening in our area. There was a good question and answer session with a variety of questions and comments detailing our frustrations with the crimes and criminals in the area as well as the lack of information that comes back to the community.

The big message that we got from Sgt. Kennedy is that we need to call in to the Chase RCMP office when we see suspicious people or activity. Especially when we see something happening at the known location of criminal activities. This allows the RCMP to enter onto property. Without a call they don’t have grounds to enter and therefore can’t find out what’s going on. Also, the more calls they get will allow them to piece together enough information to get a warrant from a judge which will allow them to enter and search a property. Call the Cops! 250-679-3221

After the RCMP discussion we started talking about how our local population might get together and make our community safer. I presented some preliminary ideas with some examples but specific plans/goals/actions have yet to be determined. These ideas were in 4 basic categories:

• Community Watching
  • Rural crime watch, Citizens on Patrol (though I understand this takes some training)
  • Cameras in strategic locations? What does the RCMP need from these cameras
  • There is an app out there called Lightcatch which may be valuable.
    
• Health & Recovery
  • Social actions – some of the trouble makers in the area may be locals or related to residents, whom we care about. Can we help them out?
  • Also, for the community – those who have been burgled can seek help – NS Health Centre and Victims Services are two options
    
• Political Activity
  • lobby the RCMP,  MLA Greg Kyllo & the Minister of Public Safety for more police coverage
  • connection with the Chase RCMP to discuss issues and incidents
    
• Frustrational Activity
  • This is Frustrational as opposed to confrontational. These would be activities that are not illegal but would have the effect of making living here more difficult and frustrating. Smart, safe, legal actions targeting the people and locations of criminal activity. This might be difficult but it’s a better alternative than vigilante action.

The overriding goal is to safely make our community safer. We don’t want our community members to in the line of fire and we don’t want our First Responders or Firefighters to be in danger reacting to avoidable incidents.

First meetings
We’ll have the first meetings for the above groups at the Scotch Creek Hall. Doors open at 6:45, meeting will start at 7pm.

• Wed Oct 9th – Community Watching
• Thu Oct 10th  – Frustrational activities
• TBA as there’s a conflict – Health & Recovery / Political Activity