Rocky Mountain House, Alta. – It has been a successful year for the Rocky Mountain House's Crime Reduction Unit (CRU) and the detachment looks forward to achieving continued positive outcomes. The Crime Reduction Unit was initially piloted for 6 months, and based on reported successes, was turned into permanent positions, made possible by the creation of 2 new provincially funded positions this past year. Two dedicated and highly motivated constables have now completed one year in these newly developed positions.
The CRU consists of a specialized team that target crime through enhanced intelligence gathering and application. These officers, with the support of civilian analysts, focus on providing actionable intelligence to front line members with increased information sharing amongst enforcement partners. The CRU is a proactive unit focused on suppressing the activities and behaviours of prolific offenders through persistent and self-generated investigations.
Over the past year, the Rocky Mountain House CRU accomplished the following:
- 168 arrests in 187 days worked;
- Over 15 ounces of drugs seized including methamphetamine, cocaine and fentanyl (with a street value of $45,000);
- 18 firearms seized;
- 13 search warrants executed;
- 27 investigations actioned where stolen property was recovered.
The intelligence tactics and expertise of the Rocky Mountain House CRU also allowed the team to achieve the following:
- Assist front line general duty with quick response and follow up on in-depth investigations as needed;
- Maintain and update Project Summit, which was created to strategically target high risk offenders in the jurisdiction and monitoring those offenders for compliance with their court imposed conditions;
- Identifying high crime areas ("hotspots") by analyzing crime statistics and targeting patrols and enforcement in those areas;
- Support other sections of the detachment and units (MCU, GIS, ALERT, ITU) and develop relationships with important external partners including the Probation Office and Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods (SCAN).
"Despite the challenging and uncertain circumstances of the pandemic in 2020, this unit has had an effective year by accomplishing key initiatives and investigations" says Staff Sergeant Carl Dinsdale of Rocky Mountain House RCMP. "I look forward to reporting on 2021 successes and our continuing efforts towards targeted crime suppression and reduction in our detachment area."