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MLA comments on UCP rural crime recommendations

The United Conservative Party (UCP) caucus think they have figured out the answer to rural crime. Last week, the UCP released their recommendations to combat crime in rural Alberta communities.
UCP

The United Conservative Party (UCP) caucus think they have figured out the answer to rural crime.


Last week, the UCP released their recommendations to combat crime in rural Alberta communities.


The report was created after UCP MLAs across the province met with constituents to discuss the issue and possible solutions.


“What we did, is we took those concerns, and there was a lot, and a former Crown prosecutor compiled them into a report. Some of it’s very specific,” explained Bonnyville-Cold Lake MLA Scott Cyr. 


As a result, the UCP came up with “A Safer Alberta,” the party’s strategy to tackling rural crime.


The report has been broken down into categories and recommendations, many of which apply to the Lakeland area, noted Cyr.


The first is data collection and public transparency. This involves sharing statistics and information with the public. The UCP recommends working closely with law enforcement agencies to improve crime data collection, introducing the Public’s Right to Know the Truth Act, and continuing consultation.


By using RCMP statistics, Cyr believes residents may have a better understanding of how their community stacks up against other areas.


A primary concern expressed by rural victims of crime, was the police response.


“We have criminals that are taking advantage of the fact that some rural residence are 45 minutes to an hour away from an RCMP detachment. By the time officers get there, the criminals are long gone,” Cyr detailed. 


Creating a provincially regulated police response system that would link all enforcement agencies, educating Albertans on the best way to report crime-related complaints in their area, initiating a detailed review of the sufficiency of police resources, and considering extending the mandate of peace officers and sheriffs were some of the UCP’s suggestions.


For Cyr, an important area that needs to be reviewed is victim services.


“Victim services is something that I spearheaded. It’s collecting a large amount of funding, but it’s just accumulating. That money isn’t actually getting to the victim,” he said. “This is problematic. We have Victim services units that haven’t had significant or substantial increases in funding, yet they have a large pot of money sitting at the government here, which was collected specifically to help victims of crime.”


For the Lakeland, court delays have been a consistent struggle, Cyr noted.


This issue was incorporated in the report, and recommendations include establishing a digitally secure electronic evidence disclosure database that would share evidence and forensic reports more efficiently, requiring basic disclosure by police and prosecutors by the first court appearance, increasing resources and expediting the decision-making process for diversion programs, hiring additional prosecutors and establishing temporary court facilities, among others.


Cyr said, “This is a big one for our constituency. What we’re finding is because of court delays and lack of court time, we’re seeing criminals get away with crime. We believe it’s time to start tightening up that whole area when it comes to making sure criminals are being held responsible, so they can’t re-victimize our citizens.”


Another area that was addressed in the report, was repeat offenders.


“I have been an advocate of getting repeat offenders off of the streets. A small part of our population is doing a majority of the crimes. What we need to do is start focusing on these individuals,” expressed Cyr. “We all know that repeat offenders is clearly one of the biggest problems in our area.”


He continued, “I believe a lot of these repeat offenders are drug abusers. Until we put these drug dealers in jail, we’re going to continue to see these property crimes being committed. We really need to put a focus on the fact that drug crime is a real thing in rural Alberta.”


In order to solve the issue, the UCP suggests developing a policy that deals specifically with repeat offenders in order to ensure they’re dealt with consistently and effectively.


They also recommend encouraging increased use of electronic monitoring of high-risk and repeat offenders, establishing a high-risk and repeat offenders unit in each judicial district and dictate resources, and amending the Crown Policy Manual to require prosecutors to produce criminal records at bail hearings, to ask judges to record the reasons for a case adjournment, and provide information to the public annually.


Based on their findings, the UCP also feels lobbying the federal government to make it a crime to breach conditions of parole or statutory release and to amend the Corrections and Condition Release Act in order to keep offenders who break parole or their conditions in custody are other options.


Although these are great suggestions, there needs to be a coordinated effort between the provincial and federal government, Cyr expressed.


“We need to make sure the federal government acknowledges rural crime is a problem and starts to change federal legislation as well as keeping criminals from reoffending.”


Residents are often left wondering what measures they can go to in order to protect themselves, their family, and their property.


Cyr said, “We need to make sure people understand their rights and have a clear understanding of what’s appropriate and what’s not.”


The UCP is hoping to accomplish this by strengthening the relationship between the government, law enforcement, and local community crime prevention organizations, as well as encouraging the use of technology and signage for crime prevention purposes, educating the public on their rights, requiring Crown prosecutors to consider vulnerabilities specific to rural areas when considering prosecution, and lobbying the federal government to amend portions of the Criminal Code and sentencing guidelines.


“What we need to do, is make sure people in rural Alberta feel safe in their home,” Cyr expressed. “Right now, a lot of people are very frightened by the direction we’re going, and they want to see change.”


Through this report, Cyr said the UCP is starting to “look at the bigger picture.”


“This is an across Alberta solution, not just a regional one,” he added.


Moving forward, Cyr believes it’s important for the government to understand where their funding needs to be spent, instead of funnelling it towards the problem.


He explained, “When we see governments pour money into solving a problem, all that ends up happening is we end up with more money in the justice system, but we never get to the root cause of the problem, and a lot of times, the big problems here is the lack of prosecutors, judges being appointed, and clerks. When you put that altogether, we have criminals getting off on technicalities or charges being stayed or withdrawn because of the fact that Crown prosecutors just don’t have time.”


The UCP is asking rural Albertans to review the report and provide feedback to their MLA, so they can continue to build off of the foundation they’ve created.


UCP leader Jason Kenney said in a release, “I want to tank our Rural Crime Task Force for the work they did to get to the heart of this complex issue... These are thoughtful recommendations that go well beyond short-term, band-aid solutions to drive meaningful change.”

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