The Red Deer-Lacombe Rural Community Crime Watch Organization will be holding their Annual General Meeting this Saturday.

The meeting will be held in Haynes at the Haynes Hall (39002 Range Road 243) at 10:00 am.

Trish McAllister, from the Central Alberta Drug Treatment Court Services, will be the special guest speaker.

Lunch will be served after.

Ken Wigmore from The Red Deer-Lacombe organization talked about Rural Crime Watch.

"It was started many years ago when prior to the Internet, and prior to cell phones neighbors were watching each others places for suspicious activity. When they saw a suspicious car drive down the road or some suspicious activity in the neighbors field or something, they were unsure of, they would send it on on what they called a phone tree. They would dial a number, put a message in there and it would dial over a hundred phone numbers."

With the use of cell phones and people having their properties hidden behind fences and trees, criminals got more active and so it is necessary to bring back Rural Crime Watch.

Wigmore says the most common crime is theft. 

"Most of it is breaking into and theft. Crimes like stealing fuel, stealing grains and even stealing cattle. Apparently cattle thievery is is up considerably in the last while."

In Alberta there are different crime zones and Central Alberta is included in Zone 2, which has around 20 different groups.

map of Crime watch areasMap of Rural Crime Watch areas for Central Alberta

The organization informs and educates Rural Crime Watch members about crime and crime prevention strategies to avoid becoming victims of crime.

They are an extra set of eyes and ears for the RCMP and report all suspicious activity to them. It is necessary for the group to have a good relationship with the RCMP.

Wigmore says they are lucky because the Blackfalds Detachment is very good at helping them and getting their message out.