The United Conservative Party’s rural crime task force released its report on Wednesday, compiled from dozens of town hall meetings and interviews with law enforcement conducted since 2017.

There were a number of recommendations regarding police response capability, victim services, court delays, protection of property and repeat offenders.

Some of them included creating special crown-police units in every judicial district to target prolific criminals. As well, creating a provincial system to link all enforcement agencies to foster more interjurisdictional cooperation.

“These are the folks that understand the loopholes within the system. They’re the ones committing an offence in one jurisdiction, going to another jurisdiction and committing another offence,” said UCP solicitor general critic Mike Ellis from a teleconference in Calgary.

“But it’s the police that have the borders. Offenders don’t have borders. So somebody can go and commit an offence in Calgary, be released hypothetically on a promise to appear, and go into rural Alberta, commit more offences, be released on another promise to appear.”

The UCP strategy also calls for lobbying the federal government to change self defence laws, so that a few other factors are considered when assessing whether use-of-force was appropriate: slow response times by police, an offender’s refusal to leave when confronted, and the number of people committing the crime and the perception of their intoxication.

In March, the provincial government committed $8 million to hire 39 new RCMP officers, 40 civilian staff.

As well, another $2 million to hire more crown prosecutors.

The government plan included creating more police intelligence positions the help RCMP identify prolific offenders and organized crime.