The Cold Lake RCMP are tracking criminal activity within the city through the police force's public crime map.
“People are always asking, where does crime happen? This is almost real-time activity on a daily basis. Our support staff enters the data every morning about what happened overnight," noted Cold Lake RCMP S/Sgt. Scott Buchanan.
The map, which is run by the RCMP but offered through a link on a municipality's website, is a platform for residents to see when and where crime is happening in their community. However, Buchanan noted the exact address of where the offence took place isn't disclosed.
Instead, they give an approximate location.
The tool refreshes every 14 days and is updated every morning, so those looking to see long-term stats will have to go elsewhere.
“If you’re a citizen interested in crime and what’s going on in your neighbourhood, you can check it every week or two and you would have a pretty good idea of what’s going on,” Buchanan noted.
Describing the map as "pretty user-friendly," Buchanan explained how only certain crimes are shown.
"Those (offences) are theft from a motor vehicle, theft of a motor vehicle, break and enter, theft over $5,000, theft under $5,000, mischief, and missing persons,” he detailed. “Those crime types were selected as information for local crime prevention strategies. If there are a rash of break and enters, what can you do about that as a citizen? Well, maybe you want to harden the target, get better lighting, and that kind of stuff."
Public crime maps are being used across the province as a way of sharing information with the public.
“The goal is the map will help citizens report suspicious activity, and then that will help us in our intelligence gathering, and ultimately help us make arrests,” outlined Buchanan.
Since implementing the program, the map has been viewed over one million times.
"There's 110-plus detachments in the province, but that's quite a few hits," noted Buchanan.
Bonnyville RCMP were one of the locations to sign up. They jumped on board in November 2018.
Another aspect of the map, is even though you connect through one municipality's website, you're able to look at other participating communities.
“You don’t have to actually get out of the program and go to the town, you can just zoom out on the local map and you can scroll over and see north, south, east, and west,” Buchanan explained.
City of Cold Lake Coun. Bob Buckle said during their corporate priorities meeting on Tuesday, April 16 that tracking crime patterns in a municipality is nothing new, it's sharing it with the public that's different.
One concern the city has heard about the map is the impact it could have on real estate.
For example, if a certain neighbourhood is consistently targeted, someone may be deterred from purchasing a home in the area.
“We have heard that as a potential concern, because of the disclaimer that the locations aren’t exact and the incidents are only kept up there for 14 days, that’s (the RCMP's) attempt to mitigate that,” noted manager for strategic initiatives for the city Andrew Serba.
Ultimately, the RCMP are hoping to raise awareness about what crimes are taking place across the province, while educating the public on how to prevent it.
Buchanan said it's also a way for the RCMP to be transparent with residents "in regards to services offered."
Serba added, “The RCMP is hoping this increases transparency in their operations and also helps to dispel some rumours that can circulate sometimes online."
“There’s a lot of information available through social media. I always caution people to be skeptical of the veracity of that, because people can put anything they want on there,” expressed Buchanan.
In order to access the map, click here.
