‘Investigations could include anything from suspected drug operations in residential areas to break-and-enter suspects targeting rural areas, businesses or industrial properties,’ said Mike Letourneau, superintendent of Alberta Sheriffs
The Alberta Sheriffs have started two new surveillance units to help fight crime in rural Alberta.
The two plainclothes teams, one for southern Alberta and another for northern Alberta, are supporting rural police by carrying out operations on criminal targets in rural areas. Both units are now fully staffed and are up and running.
At a Thursday news conference, Mike Ellis, Alberta’s Public Safety and Emergency Services minister, said the units could help rural RCMP detachments with crimes such as break-ins committed by prolific offenders and fuel thefts from farms.
“These are the types of cases that cause plenty of concern for rural Albertans, and they need solving as well,” he said Thursday.
The new surveillance teams are one more way the province is expanding the role of the Alberta Sheriffs, said Ellis.
“By further empowering the sheriffs to take on more police-type functions, we’re not just providing better support to Alberta’s existing police services. We’re sending a message, and the message to convicted and prospective offenders (is) that you are not welcome here,” he said.
“So we’re going to keep Albertans safe and this is just another example of that,” said Ellis.
Alberta Sheriffs anticipate developing relationships with rural police detachments
Mike Letourneau, superintendent of Alberta Sheriffs, said criminals often view rural communities as places where they can get away with their crimes.
“Their perception is misconstrued, as we take yet one more step to protect public safety throughout the province,” he said Thursday.
Each team has one plain-clothed sergeant and seven sheriffs, each with specialized surveillance training, and will mostly help rural police gather intelligence and information on known and suspected offenders, and obtain evidence that can be used in court, said Letourneau.
“Investigations could include anything from suspected drug operations in residential areas to break-and-enter suspects targeting rural areas, businesses or industrial properties,” he said.
The list for requests is not “extensively long” yet, but the teams are six weeks old, said Letourneau, who anticipates the queues for help becoming longer as they develop relationships with rural police detachments.
“We’re a smaller unit, but there are surveillance units all over Edmonton, all over Calgary, all over rural Alberta, that are currently doing surveillance on targets,” he said. “As a primary measure, we want to get into these smaller communities to make the biggest impact.”
Carstairs mayor Lance Colby said the new units will help RCMP detachments cover the vast areas they police.
“If you can target and identify known criminals who are out stealing property from rural Alberta, farms, industry, it just makes it better that they can target them and arrest them and put them off the street,” he said during Thursday’s news conference.