About 50 people turned up to the Red Deer and Lacombe Rural Crime Watch meeting on Thursday night at the Lincoln Hall.

The object of these meetings is to discuss different ways rural community members can cut down on the amount of rural crime, something that has been on the rise in recent years.

Guest speakers included Peace Officer Brett Miller, who spoke about preventing crime through environmental design, meaning making your property seem less appealing to potential thieves. Also on hand were people who built specialized security gates and alarm systems for your property.

Ken Wigmore is the President of the Rural Crime Watch, and he says this group has existed in some form for a while now, but the focus shifted from catching bad guys in the act, to preventing crimes from happening in the first place.

"It was Maskepetoon Rural Crime Watch, (which) has been around for a long time. But since some new people have got on the board, myself included, were taking it into a little different direction, trying to do it more on education. We can't possibly do crime prevention, we can't drive the roads, we can't pick up guys. The only thing we can do is bring the information to the people and they can do it from there."

For more information on the next rural crime watch meeting, you can phone Wigmore at 403-782-2593.

For more information on crime prevention through environmental design, you can email Peace Officer Brett Miller at bmiller@lacombecounty.com.