Kenneth Brown
of The Crossroads
Crime in rural Saskatchewan has been on the rise in recent years so a group of citizens in the Kindersley area is starting a Rural Crime Watch association.
About 30 people attended an organizational meeting on Jan. 17 at the Kindersley Masonic Lodge. Cpl. Mel Zurevinsky of the RCMP’s Crime Prevention and Crime Reduction unit attended the meeting to give a presentation about the Rural Crime Watch program.
Zurevinsky, who has done his presentation for members of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM), was also in Kindersley for an information meeting in November. He gave a condensed version of his presentation at last week’s meeting. Staff Sgt. Ray Blais of the Kindersley RCMP was also in attendance.
Lorne Pincemin, a councillor for the Rural Municipality of Kindersley, chaired the organizational meeting. He thanked people for coming out to the first official meeting of the Kindersley and District Rural Crime Watch Association.
When people first entered the Masonic Lodge, they were asked to put their names on a sign-in sheet and to mark the location of their farms or acreages on a map of the RM of Kindersley. Pincemin said after people heard from Zurevinsky, a formal meeting would be held to start setting up an association.
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The corporal said he has been a member of the RCMP for about 20 years and he operates a farm and ranch operation in the RM of Colonsay. He told the story of how he became involved with the Rural Crime Watch program, and how the program used to be more common in rural areas.
“It was a really big thing in the early 2000s,” Zurevinsky said of the program, recognizing that the program’s popularity died off going into the 2010s and there has been a resurgence with respect to people’s interest in the program.
Zurevinsky said he is the only person assigned to the file in Saskatchewan. He noted that there were only about five active Rural Crime Watch associations in the province when he took over the file, but there are more than 50 groups now considering the program across Saskatchewan.
The corporal referred to an association in the RM of Edenwold that has about 90 members. The area’s RCMP detachment has assigned two members to the file, and the program has helped to reduce crime in the municipality.
The crime watch association in Edenwold uses a cell phone application called WhatsApp to communicate messages among the membership. If the members notice suspicious people, vehicles or activity in the area, they make a post on WhatsApp to notify other members. The program has assisted police in locating criminals, but it has also helped to prevent people from calling the police when it is not necessary, Zurevinsky said.
For example, a member made a post about a suspicious vehicle driving around in one area, but another member told the group it was just his new farm hand. The corporal said the RCMP is aware of the program’s benefits and it would help to have a network of associations across the province.
“We believe Rural Crime Watch can be the eyes and ears for the RCMP in Saskatchewan,” he said, recognizing that a combination of information from the associations and data analysis by the RCMP could lead to “amazing” results.
Pincemin called the organizational meeting to order after people had a chance to ask questions of Zurevinsky. People were given a copy of the association’s proposed bylaws and after a quick briefing, the bylaws were approved. The bylaws give a formal name to the association and focus on membership, meetings, a board of directors and amendments.
The association needed a board of five to seven members to get started, and people approved a five-member board at the meeting. To become a member of the association, people must first complete a criminal record check and download WhatsApp to prepare for the invitation.
Pincemin said the RM of Kindersley is sponsoring the program, so membership is free. The municipality also has Rural Crime Watch signs for members, so people could pick up the signs at the administration office in Kindersley.
The councillor said the goal is to have 100 members in every corner, nook and cranny of the municipality. He encouraged people at the meeting to reach out to neighbours, oil industry workers and truck drivers to ask them to consider joining.
At the end of the meeting, Blais said he is thrilled to see a group of people starting a Rural Crime Watch association because he knows it could help local RCMP members. He noted that people could go to the detachment in Kindersley to get a basic criminal record check and it should only take a few minutes.
The staff sergeant said a drinking and driving conviction from 20 years ago is not likely to be a problem, but anyone with a criminal history will have to be approved by the board. He added that people should call the detachment first to make sure someone is there to do a check.
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