Leading up to last week, it seemed like news of a town hall meeting to discuss crime with St. Paul RCMP was welcomed by people who felt this keenly as a personal issue.
Last summer particularly, many locals experienced break-ins and expressed frustrations about petty thefts. Although the local statistics don’t exactly show a rise in crime across the board, last year’s increase in break and enters and thefts under $5,000 – and people sharing that information with each other over social media – leads to an impression that crime is spiraling out of control.
The town hall meeting held last week offered a chance to share those frustrations and concerns.
But when it came down to it, given the opportunity to talk to RCMP, surprisingly few people from the public attended Wednesday’s meeting. For those that were there, RCMP shared some good tips and ideas, as well as suggestions for community involvement, such as joining Citizens on Patrol. These COP groups simply act as the eyes and ears for RCMP, patrolling neighbourhoods and reporting anything suspicious or concerning to police, and they can have success, noted Staff Sgt. Lee Brachmann.
However, a COP group is like a town hall meeting, in that without sustained, dedicated participation and community involvement, it will struggle to have long-term success, with few volunteers strained to meet the needs.
A few things came up at the meeting that highlighted the challenges of dealing with crime – primarily, as RCMP indicated, the futility of charging people again and again, particularly when it comes to those who are suffering from addictions.
Local RCMP work hard to address the concerns of the public, such as doing proactive patrols and responding to calls for everything ranging from public intoxication to thefts, but they cannot prevent or solve the larger problems of society on their own.
This, as Brachmann points out, is a much more complex issue. It’s one that requires the participation of everyone, from RCMP, to community health services, to addictions services, to the government and justice system, to schools, to parents and families, to address the root causes of crime.
