Taking a swing at crime in Moncton's old west end

Residents in Moncton's old west end say crime is on the rise in the neighbourhood, and they're organizing in hopes of putting a stop to it.

Dianne Reddy is so fed up, she keeps a baseball bat by the door.

"If I find anybody on my property that doesn't belong here, day or night, I am not afraid to use it," she said.

"The police know about this. They told me it's not a good idea, but at this point I really don't care."

Reddy has lived in the neighbourhood for 21 years but said a recent rash of thefts has made her consider leaving.

In the last two years, she said, her car has been broken into at least a dozen times, and her key chain containing both her car and house keys was taken twice.

"They had gotten the keys out of the house in October but I didn't know that."

Reddy assumed she had misplaced her keys, until she woke up one morning to find her car missing.

"The police found my car with a couple in it. They had my keys." 

She is vigilant about keeping her car and home doors locked, but it feels as if thieves will "take whatever is not nailed down."

Others in the tree-lined neighbourhood feel the same frustration. So much so, that when a meeting was held this week to discuss the increase in crime, about 120 people showed up.

"The perception obviously is that the number of crimes of opportunity have increased in this area and people don't feel safe," said Charles Léger, the Moncton city councillor who represents the ward. 

Léger is also chair of the Codiac Regional Policing Authority, the group responsible for overseeing planning, police coverage and fiscal management of Codiac RCMP for Moncton, Dieppe and Riverview.

The authority posts a monthly crime map, which shows only three incidents of property crime in the old west end reported in each week between July 1 through July 7, and July 7 through July 14.

Léger said crimes recounted at the meeting do not match with the crime statistics kept by the RCMP. This is  because people don't always call the police, he said.

"Very few of these crimes were reported this summer.  Because they're not reporting it doesn't really indicate to the RCMP that there's an issue there.

"So they're frustrated and the residents are frustrated."

Léger said getting the right data can help the RCMP understand where crime is happening and how best to curb it.

The idea of a neighbourhood watch was also raised at the meeting, with people in the community volunteering to start the process. 

Didn't report bike thefts

Rhonda Bulmer, who lives in the neighbourhood, said she attended the meeting and learned the problem could be bigger than she thought.

"People were a lot more worried than I realized," she said.

Three bikes were stolen from her backyard three years ago. She didn't call the police because she didn't see the point, but she's since learned it's better to report even minor crimes. 

Dianne Reddy said she likes seeing the community come together to make their own solutions because she likes her neighbourhood. She raised her children in her old west end home and lived there with her late husband.

She doesn't want to leave and hopes she doesn't have to.