There's now a member of the Lacombe Police Service dedicated to connecting with community members.

After 7 years on patrol with LPS, Constable Carl Matthews has been named Community Liaison Officer, which is a brand new role with the police service.

Matthews says much of his job is just to make himself available to community groups and residents.

“Just to have one person dedicated, working Monday-Friday, office hours so that anybody in the community that wants somebody to deal specifically and help them in different areas, the position like I say, we’re kind of defining it as we are going and its growing rapidly in the various functions people are asking to help with”.

Those groups include Victim Services, the Lacombe Community Watch Association, social services, community agencies and non-profits, businesses and community stakeholders.

In addition to his community work, Matthews says he'll also be taking a closer look at crime in Lacombe.

“Continue to examine crime trends that are occurring in Lacombe, how they are affecting Lacombe and then develop strategies to help combat those particular crime trends that are occurring”.

He adds it’s a key piece of his community role, as he'll act as a media liaison too, working to communicate crime issues and police work to the public.

“Understanding how the community is affected by crime, also helps me liaise with the various groups that are a part of that solution too.  As I examine how we are effected the most in Lacombe, whether it be drugs or property crime or that sort of thing, then I can also liaise with the various community groups that might also be a part of that solution”.

In terms of property crimes he notes LPS dealt with a third of the number of stolen vehicles or recovered stolen vehicles in March of this year as they did in March of last year.

He credits the reduction due to some hard work.

“Patrol members made quite an intentional effort to go after the people that they knew were the prolific offenders living here in Lacombe, and some of those people are now in remand and I think that was a direct influence especially on the property crime to see it decrease and we could see a few key people, prolific offenders that are no longer in the picture in Lacombe”.

Matthews says they are still seeing Red Deer and area prolific offenders travelling to Lacombe to carry out crimes, noting shoplifting as one area they've noticed that trend.

Prior to his time with the Lacombe Police Service, Matthews served with Edmonton Police, he's also served as a Reserve member of the Canadian Forces and a Pastor at the Church of the Nazarene in Sundre.