Less than a dozen local business representatives showed up for a one-hour lunch talk about local crime last Wednesday. Despite criminal activity being identified as a leading issue in and around local businesses, the event, hosted by the Lac La Biche and District Chamber of Commerce at Lac La Biche's McArthur Place, drew a smaller than expected crowd.
Lac La Biche County's interim Chief Administrative Officer Ken Van Buul moderated the session.
"We want to understand what you are going through," said Van Buul, encouraging the small crowd to discuss big issues. "We don't want this to be a session about things we can't do anything about. We want to walk out of here, thinking we have some ideas."
Loitering, drug and alcohol use and vagrants threatening staff and customers inside stores were some of the main areas of concern expressed by some retailers. Vandalism and thefts at outlying industrial parks and rural areas was also a discussion topic.
Local RCMP Staff Sgt Jerry Nutbrown and Lac La Biche County's Protective Services Manager Chris Clark were present for the session, and each faced questions and criticism on the main topics. Some retailers said they have felt threatened by unwanted customers coming into their stores and causing disturbances — but felt they didn't get appropriate responses when they called police for help.
Nutbrown said he can relate to the frustrations, but explained that police have certain thresholds to reach before resources can pursue complaints.
"Someone feeling unsafe, (compared to) a crime, are two separate things," he said, explaining that specific triggers like swearing, threats or property damage can lead to criminal charges — if the complainant is willing to pursue charges. "We need people to stand behind that."
Using resources to simply pick up a problem person and move them without charges being pursued by the complainant isn't helping the larger picture, the police officials told those at the meeting.
Clark, who was a member of the Lac La Biche RCMP before joining the municipal force said he is well-aware of the 'catch-and-release' cycle many residents see when it comes to crime and criminals in the community, but said people shouldn't give up on reporting incidents to police. He said habitual re-offenders can and do get longer and longer sentences each time they get sentenced in court.
"It does build up that history," said Clark, explaining that municipal officers have also responded to loitering and disturbance complaints that fall within the municipality's Community Standards Bylaw and the Community Safety Bylaw.
Trespass notices
Within those bylaws, Clark says municipal peace officers can offer paperwork to retailers and residents to keep certain people from their properties. Trespass letters are part of the local bylaws, and contain penalties of up to $500 for anyone listed on the notice who enters the property. If the person is unable to pay, then jail time is given.
Clark says it gives some power to the retailers and the peace officers to act on unwelcome people.
Lac La Biche County councillor George L'Heureux was at the meeting. He also recently spoke at a rural crime meeting in Hylo. He said crime is an indicator of many underlying issues, including mental illness, drug use, as well as social and economic challenges. He said changes to the larger system need to happen. But he also said more needs to be done to show not only the criminals that the police are around, but all residents.
"Let's have more of a police presence out there ... let's have them out in the rural areas with their lights going, even if they're just giving out 'safe-driving' tickets," he said.
Lac La Biche County Mayor Omer Moghrabi says policing is just one part of "wrap-around-services" that need to be in place to reduce crime and assist people in need of help.
It's a big task, said the mayor, explaining that the solution could lie somewhere in the combinations of mental health services, addictions counselling, more creative sentencing and punishments, more crime prevention education for residents, and more policing resources. Finding the right combination, he admitted, won't be easy.
"This is going to take time and it's very frustrating for our resident and business," he said, explaining that local crime is a significant issue in the community. "We see it and hear about it every day."
With attention to the issue brought to municipal leaders, RCMP and peace officers, Van Buul closed the session by saying the entire community needs to get involved in crime prevention.
"If you only look to the RCMP and say, 'it's your problem to solve for me,' that isn't the answer — one agency, one individual is not going to make a difference," he said, explaining the issue as a jigsaw puzzle with a lot of little pieces to put together. "There is no one thing we are going to do that will all of a sudden turn the page."
Followup meeting
Van Buul said he hoped the people who did attend the meeting got a few answers and saw that there is work being done to create a safer community. He also hoped that a sense of "enthusiasm" shown by residents and businesses to get involved shows that "it's not all doom and gloom."
The municipality's senior administrator said several topics discussed at the meeting will be put into a priorities list and presented to county councillors and police officials. He said ideas like bringing back a citizens on patrol group, rural crime watch organizations, re-scheduled peace officer patrols and more preventative surveillance could be part of that plan. An update on the progress is expected to be brought to another Chamber-hosted meeting towards the end of October.
Last week's event, originally scheduled for a two-and-a-half hour session with a supplied lunch, was cut back to just a lunch hour due to scheduling conflicts.
