New RCMP unit targets repeat offenders in rural areas around Calgary

RCMP in the Calgary area have created a new crime fighting unit to focus on nabbing criminals in rural jurisdictions — especially repeat property-crime offenders.

And the team has already had a few successes, including their first bust on Feb. 13, made in conjunction with Calgary police: an Olds man charged with 63 offences including vehicle theft, identity theft and fraud involving in Olds, Innisfail, Didsbury and Calgary.​

Sgt. Brad White, the head of the Southern Alberta Crime Reduction Team (SACRT), talked to The Eyeopener Tuesday about why the unit was formed and what it hopes to achieve. An edited excerpt of the interview follows:

Q: What is the Southern Alberta Crime Reduction Team?

A: We put together a team — myself as sergeant and four highly skilled constables. We're provincially funded positions that have been brought in by our new commanding officer to really try and tackle some of the issues we have in rural crime.

A lot of rural detachments are just young men and women doing a great job working in a patrol car and a uniform, and catching some of these really prolific offenders is proving to be a little tougher. That's where we fit in. [We're] doing a bit of different technique to catch these people.

Q: Like for example someone wanted on 63 different charges?

A: Our four constables are made of people from the Calgary area. So we're having coffee a couple days ago and one of them who works in that detachment area said there's a gentleman who's wanted on 41 warrants. We did a bit of a background [check] on him and he really met our profile. He [was wanted on] offences from Calgary, Didsbury and Olds — he had the feel of what we wanted to do: property offences, breach of conditions and theft of vehicles and that sort of thing. But he was just proving too hard, maybe, for local investigators at the detachment level to pick him up — so he was a good way to start.

...We work in a plainclothes capacity. Surveillance is really key for us, so we just did a little bit of surveillance where we knew he was living, and as soon as we saw him, we got a warrant and picked him up. He was very cooperative and unfortunately got himself in a lot of trouble. But it worked very well for us.

Q: Is vehicle theft a big issue?

A: It certainly is. It doesn't seem as if crime is going up exponentially in any certain area around here, but it does seem like there's a lot of property crime, vehicle theft, break and enters all along being committed by a very small group of individuals that do cross boundaries of detachments — in Calgary and out to rural areas — and that kind of makes it difficult for people to focus on them, and some of the patrol members to get a handle on these guys. That's really what is going to be our focus. 

Q: Is that a strategy? That sounds like a Bonnie and Clyde trick!

A: It could be. I don't know if they know boundaries as well as we do — where one detachment leads into another —  but the vehicle seems to be the mode of transportation to the next crime or to get them to where they need to go and unfortunately that ends up being one of the most reported crimes now.

Q: Is rural crime on the rise?

A: I did go through some of the bigger towns in my area to see — [and crimes in] towns like Airdrie or Chestermere and Olds and some of these medium-sized towns are on the rise. Some are up, some are down.

Just from being in this area as a police officer these last seven years, I have noticed the [number of] vehicle thefts, break and enter in rural area and high speed pursuits — and these sort of things, chasing the same people all the time — these things seem to be our main issues.

Their names are really out there and really getting around. That's where we're going to use the strategy to identify our people. Hopefully.

With files from The Eyeopener

• MORE ALBERTA NEWS | Stunting driver who hit pedestrian and sped off sought in central Alberta
• MORE CALGARY NEWS | Frozen water lines force northwest high school to close