Chestermere continues to be one of the safest communities in the region

Chestermere continues to be a safe place to live and work according to the RCMP quarterly report presented to council Feb. 21.
“I think things are going well,” said RCMP detachment commander Staff Sgt. Mark Wielgosz.
As Chestermere continues to grow, so too does the amount of reported crimes but that crime remains well within the detachment’s capacity to handle it said Wielgosz.
Like the rest of the region, property crimes remain the largest issue RCMP are dealing with.
Prevention of crime in the community is everyone’s responsibility not just the police.
For this reason, Wielgosz is urging the public to report all crimes.
“Generally speaking, no matter where I’ve policed a large amount of crime is highly underreported,” he said.
“I would encourage the public to do is report whatever issue you face to the police,” said Wielgosz, “it’s hard for us to track what’s going on and where it’s happening unless people are telling us.”
Knowledge of crime trends allow police to be proactive in their strategies instead of reactive and waiting for calls to come in.
“If there’s a rash of incidents that are happening in one specific neighbourhood then that might force us to take a look at where our members are spending their time or perhaps what is making that community…more attractive for criminals,” he said.
Going forward, Wielgosz is started to consult with community members and stakeholders as he starts to plan the new fiscal years’ policing goals and priorities.
Wielgosz hopes that the newly proposed Police Communications and Community Link will form part of these consultations.
This community based group is meant to provide Wielgosz with feedback from the community.
“It’s to seek an enhanced level of feedback from the community from what their perspective is on emerging crime trends or areas in which they would like to see police focus their attention,” he said.
It also provides a conduit for the RCMP to communicate better with the community.
“I think…largely the public is unaware of what our activities are and what we’re doing to help keep the community safe,” said Wielgosz.
He does believe that members have been doing a good job of raising their profile in the community through attending events such as Life’s Too Shorts and going into the local schools.
“Halloween, for instance, we had a lot of trick-or-treaters that were pretty happy to get candy from the police,” said Wielgosz.
Another community initiative that he hopes will continue to grow is the pilot project to register home surveillance systems in Chestermere.
The goal of the project is to allow members to more quickly identify possible leads and potentially narrow down their investigation faster through the use of surveillance video.
Anyone interested in joining the registry can contact the RCMP at 403-204-8777 ext. 0 with their name, address and contact information. People can choose to join or leave the registry at any time.