It's no secret rural crime stats are up drastically in much of central Alberta.

With over a decade of experience under his belt as a Detachment Commander, Rocky Mountain House RCMP Staff Sergeant Mark Groves is stepping into a new role, tasked to work towards a crime reduction plan for the region with a focus on the rural areas as he's temporarily been reassigned as the new District Advisory Non-Commissioned Officer for Central Alberta District.

He’ll now be overseeing and assisting the Detachment Commanders in Blackfalds, Sylvan Lake, Innisfail, Rimbey, Red Deer and Rocky Mountain House.

Groves has some ideas on how he would like to start addressing the rural crime problem.

“I’m really looking forward to possibly creating a team to help detachments such as Bashaw and Rimbey who have suffered large increases in crime in some aspects and some areas and where we can focus on chronic habitual offenders and be able to target areas that have been suffering a greater increase in property crime”.

He notes those chronic habitual offenders in central Alberta are often gravitating to areas where there is less police presence, often communities that don't have a detachment.

“And I think that’s where we are coming up with strategies and plans as far as how do we implement more patrols, how do we focus more patrols on those areas and have allowances for that, keeping in mind there is always the stresses for the routine calls, but also being able to be more strategic in the times that we are out there patrolling for example”.

Rocky Mountain House RCMP has been successful in significantly reducing rural crime complaints in Clearwater County, particularly in the Leslieville and Caroline areas, and Groves points to working more closely with the community as one reason for that success.

“Crime reduction doesn’t just all fall on the police; it’s a collaborative effort with the community.  I think if the community itself, there was some preventative measures taken, the days of old of leaving your keys in your quad out in the back 40, those days may have been passed now.  So if we as ourselves, as a community member take some initiative to try to prevent crime and the police we do all of the strategies and goals that we know have worked, I think collectively we can bring these numbers back into reason”.

Sergeant Jay Penner, the Operations Non Commissioned Officer for the Rocky Mountain House Detachment will be the Acting Detachment Commander during Groves' absence.