Policing is one of the issues that Communities as well as Governments spend a lot of time talking about, especially when there appears to be a crime problem. Policing methods are complex to say the least; the efforts that are made are not visible to an ordinary citizen going about their business on a day to day basis. The only acceptable crime statistic would be zero crime, anywhere. If a person has been victim of a thief it is a devastating experience, it leaves you feeling helpless, violated and angry. They usually will steal things that have deep family meaning, sometimes items with high value, sometimes low. I know this since we were broken into in the past, it is never acceptable and becoming a statistic feels like an insult. It appears there are criminals at work in our area, please protect your valuables as best you can, a healthy suspicion is appropriate. Social media tends to overstate problems, please use it to your advantage to inform your neighbors and create awareness, not place blame with anyone other than the unwelcome criminals.
Every form of government provides policing, the Federal Government has their RCMP organization, the province has the Sheriffs and the County has Peace officers. There are 4 different types of Police in Langdon, the County provides both bylaw officers as well as peace officers. The bylaw people can only enforce bylaws, things like unsightly premises, bringing in fill without a permit, building something not allowed, dog problems and noise infractions to list a few. They do not patrol for these things, it is complaint driven enforcement. The Peace officers can enforce bylaws and can also enforce traffic infractions, like speeding, seatbelts, distracted driving, over weight vehicles and any other traffic related offences, they can’t enforce the criminal code and they are unarmed.
The Province’s Sheriffs are similar, they enforce traffic laws on the highways, they also provide security for the Premiers office and prisoner duties for the court system. The Federal government has the RCMP, from their website is this explanation; “The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is the Canadian national police service and an agency of the Ministry of Public Safety Canada. The RCMP is unique in the world since it is a national, federal, provincial and municipal policing body. We provide a total federal policing service to all Canadians and policing services under contract to the three territories, eight provinces (except Ontario and Quebec), more than 150 municipalities, more than 600 Aboriginal communities and three international airports.” The Province supplies policing via the RCMP to our area, it is paid for by tax dollars and is provided at levels believed effective.
Rocky View County has recently increased the Peace Officers in the area, I am pleased to report that other than a bit of a flurry in the beginning, they are reasonably bored in their traffic patrols. Next month I will cover the level of Policing and how it will be changing.
