Due to an increase in the amount of crimes in Lacombe County in the past few years, specifically rural property crime, RCMP would like to hire at least one more plainclothes officer for the area.

That General Investigation Section Officer's primary focus would be to deal with more complex and involved cases, being able to dedicate more time to figuring out the underlying causes of certain crimes and trying to prevent them, instead of simply reacting after a crime has already taken place.

A new GIS officer was recently approved by Red Deer County for this job, and Blackfalds RCMP are hoping Lacombe County follows suit and adds at least one more officer for this specialized position.

At the Lacombe County Council meeting Thursday, Staff Sergeant Ken Morrison presented to council, and he explains what this officer’s job would be.

"We're trying to put together a plainclothes unit, a two person plain clothes unit, which will be shared between Red Deer County and Lacombe County. It would be a two person unit that would handle the more serious, the more prolific crimes that are occurring in the areas, tackling some of the more serious property crimes, and the property crime that is linked together. And going after some of the habitual offenders in our area. Similar to what The Priority Crime Task Force has been doing, and working together sometimes with them, working together will all the neighbouring detachments, the detachment that are in Lacombe County as well as Red Deer county."

Morrison makes the point that police resources would go a lot further with these specialized GIS officers, because they would be able to direct their full attention on these cases, instead of taking a uniformed officer off the street for a few weeks to investigate.

This new strategy comes as demand for police is increasing over the years, especially in the Blackfalds area.

In their annual satisfaction survey ratepayers said crime is now one of their top three concerns.

Normally crime didn't even make the list.

Morrison hopes this new officer can put a dent in that.

"This officer we were talking about today, would be funded by Lacombe County, but it would be working with the position that is already approved by Red Deer County. The two of them would be working together on crime that is occurring in Red Deer, and Lacombe Counties."

Normally, the province considers new Officers through their contract with the RCMP, but due to budget caps, there is no new officer hires on the books for 2017.