Rocky View County gets enhanced police presence

Since the fall, Rocky View County has had an enhanced RCMP officer dedicated to policing in Langdon and the surrounding area.
Const. Blaine Taylor came to the Strathmore detachment August and now spends his time almost exclusively in Rocky View County.
“Langdon’s a great community,” he said.
“It’s a gorgeous area,” said Taylor, “the people I can’t say enough about, they’ve been…welcoming me to the community.”
Taylor’s position as the enhanced RCMP member for Rocky View County is the result of three years of work by County Councilor Rolly Ashdown to get extra policing for Langdon and the surrounding area.
The desire for a dedicated RCMP member has been mainly in response to growth in the area and the changing perception of crime, not necessarily an actual increase.
“We have more population here than we used to,” said Ashdown.
Although there isn’t a lot of crime in Langdon, Ashdown said that social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter can increase the perception of trouble in in the area.
“With social media they hear of [problems] a little bit easier than they used to,” said Ashdown.
Strathmore RCMP Staff Sgt. Kevin O’Dwyer said that the RCMP can’t track comments and reports on social media, they can only respond to and track those crimes that are reported to them.
Although property crimes in Langdon have increased like the rest of the province, Ashdown doesn’t think there is too much of a problem in the area.
“In actual fact, I believe, that we don’t have much for crime out here,” he said.
O’Dwyer said that he has seen an increase in crimes related to the downturn in the economy.
“We’re seeing people coming out from the city…and committing crimes in Rocky View County and then heading back in to the city,” he said.
Taylor said that with the size of the area he is patrolling that he is kept quite busy.
Despite how busy he can be, Taylor doesn’t believe that there is any kind of crime wave in the area.
Taylor and the RCMP do recommend people take some steps to protect themselves from being victims of opportunistic crimes.
“As far as crime goes, a lot of people can actually prevent a lot of it, by taking small steps, by locking doors, hiding valuables take them out of your car, lock your car…small stuff like that,” he said.
While Taylor is dedicated to policing the county, he isn’t alone in the job. The other members from Strathmore continue to work in and patrol the area and respond to calls as needed.