Forty Mile, BI to hold rural crime watch meetings

Justin Seward

Commentator/Courier

The County of Forty Mile and Town of Bow Island will each hold information sessions on March 8 to educate local people on what rural crime does in a community with the hope of starting their own association in the near future.
County council and the local RCMP wanted to facilitate this meeting to see how much interest there is in the community to establish a crime watch group.
Some councillors have shown interest in participating.
“It gives local community a chance to be more involved in this,” said Dave Matz, the meeting’s organizer.
“Rural crime watch doesn’t work without local residents participating directly in it. It’s not something that can be driven by the county. It actually has to come from residents. We just want to see if there is interest in starting a group.”
Bow Island RCMP Cst. Matt Kennedy said the meetings will help give everybody information on how to deal with crimes and how to help each other as neighbours.
“It’s something we’ve been wanting to set up for a few years,” said Kennedy.
“It just helps the neighbours communicate with each other, kind of like what people used to do a long time ago. There’s a large focus right now on rural crime and gets everybody on the same page to help stop is definitely going to be a bonus.”
Rosemary Lindsay from the provincial crime watch association will be attending the meetings to provide more information on how to set up a group.
Volunteers need to sit on an executive and set up local society that then becomes a part of the provincial organization.
Meetings will be held at the Bow Island Provincial Building Courtroom at 3:30 p.m. and the Etzikom Community Hall at 6:30 p.m. on March 8.

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