On the heels of a $10 million dollar investment by the province that promises more RCMP officers, civilian staff and additional Crown prosecutors, Lacombe County says it's a start, but more needs to be done to combat rural crime.

Deputy Reeve Ken Wigmore is at the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties spring convention in Edmonton today (Mar 20th) where Lacombe County will be looking for support for a resolution on combatting rural crime that calls for new strategies and initiatives to prevent rural crime both at the provincial and federal level and for a review of the criminal justice system.

Wigmore says if improvements aren't made soon, he fears more vigilantism as many rural landowners are fed up.

“We really need to do it long before we get any more shots fired literally out of guns towards the perpetrators, so I feel sorry for those people who protect their own place with a gun, one shot fired and your life is finished and you lose everything you’ve got because you will spend it on lawyer bills”.

The County’s resolution calls for punishing those convicted and further reviews of the system and sentencing reforms to get repeat offenders off the street for longer periods of time.

Wigmore says jails are full and building more is not the solution, it will just cost the taxpayer more money, but he says there has to be a better solution.

“The catch and release isn’t working out too well, really I think in the long run just picking up some of these offenders and sticking them in jail is like sending them to college, they just get an education on what they shouldn’t do and they are let go again.  We need to come with a different plan, more RCMP officers will definitely help, but we need to do something with the justice system”.

Lacombe County Council is also endorsing a private members motion by MP Shannon Stubbs which asks the government to start a study on rural crime in Canada and recommend crime reduction initiatives.