New surveillance teams to help fight rural crime

Posted on July 25, 2024 by Ryan Dahlman

By Al Beeber
Southern Alberta Newspapers

Two surveillance teams have been launched to help the RCMP fight rural crime in Alberta.

The teams – one based in Edmonton and the other Calgary – have been operational for several weeks.

Each plainclothes team is comprised of one sergeant and seven sheriffs, all with specialized surveillance training, media heard in a press conference with Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Services Mike Ellis and Alberta Sheriffs superintendent Mike Letourneau.

The teams are working with the RCMP to target criminal offenders in rural parts of the province. While both the RCMP and Sheriffs already have officers working in surveillance the teams will enhance their ability to surveil criminals, Ellis said. The Sheriffs’ existing unit is part of the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team which is focused mainly on investigation of serious and organized crime activities.

The new teams will monitor agricultural theft and prevent crime by working in collaboration with local law enforcement agencies to share resources and intelligence, filling a gap in crime investigations.

The program costs $4.3 million with all team members having extensive surveillance experience.

Ellis said just over a year ago he introduced a series of new measures to protect Albertans and keep the province safe. The province indicated it would provide more than $27 million in new funding “to boost the Alberta Sheriffs operational capacity and their ability augment and support existing police services in carrying out functions that further enhance public safety.”

Those efforts have proven “tremendously successful and they continue to make Alberta’s streets and communities safer each and every day,” Ellis added.

The surveillance teams provide more specialized capacity to fight crime in rural areas of the province with the government intending to do “whatever it takes to keep people safe,” he added.

“These two teams are now fully operational and ready to tackle rural crime across this province,” Ellis added.

The teams are “filling a gap by helping rural RCMP detachments with local investigations to combat local crime,” he added, such as break-ins by prolific offenders or fuel thefts from farmers which Ellis called an issue plaguing communities.

“Their addition will significantly enhance law enforcement’s ability to surveil criminals and suspected criminals in rural areas where there is often little capacity” to do so, he added.

“There is no safe haven for criminal activity in Alberta,” he emphasized, saying the teams expand the role of the Sheriffs while augmenting existing police to better protect Albertans=.

“By further empowering the Sheriffs to take on more police-like functions, we’re not just providing better support to Alberta’s existing services, we’re sending a message” to offenders they’re not welcome in the province, Ellis added.

He noted the Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods unit of the Sheriffs, he noted, in the last five months has overseen the closure of nine residential properties associated with drug trafficking and other illegal activity. The province has added 20 positions to that program, Ellis added.

“Carstairs mayor Lance Colby, who also spoke at the event, called the surveillance teams “a game changer for rural Alberta’s fight against crime.”

“Many communities feel vulnerable to the threat of crime” and are always seeing ways to protect themselves and their ones, Colby said, calling the teams a vital step to augment local law enforcement.

Letourneau said the new teams will be available to support criminal investigations with a specific focus on rural Alberta.

“Criminals often view these smaller communities, rural areas, as places where they can conduct their criminal activity away from the watchful eye of law enforcement. Their perception is misconstrued as we take yet one more step to protect public safety throughout the province,” Letourneau said.

“The implementation of these new units enhances surveillance capacity and coverage province-wide, aiding further in our efforts to make sure Albertans feel safe no matter where they live,” he added.

All team members have a law enforcement background with experience in a variety of disciplines and fields and all have specialized surveillance training, he said.

“Their role will be wide and varied but mostly they’ll be available to help police gather intelligence and information on known and suspected offenders and obtain evidence that will help lead to charges in court,” Letourneau said.