The Drumheller RCMP has released the 2014 crime statistics and the priorities for 2015. According to the stats, crime is on the decrease in the valley.
    In 2013, there were 3,158 files generated that included calls for service from the general public, and proactive and self-generated files. In 2014 that number decreased to 2,838 files.
    Acting RCMP Drumheller Commander Corporal Kevin Charles presented these statistics to Town Council Monday, May 11 during the council’s Meeting of the Whole.  
    “If you go with the most common files, the percentage of change is negligible, plus or minus a couple of per cents. I always caution with statistics because these stats are based on reported crime. It is not the total crime that occurred, because unfortunately not everyone reports crime.”
  Charles said the RCMP has been pressing upon the public the importance of reporting all crime to police regardless of the severity.
   Charles said he doesn’t see anything within the statistics that is alarming.  
    During the council meeting, Charles also presented the four priorities that the Drumheller RCMP will have for 2015. These priorities are based on feedback from the online survey residents of Drumheller were asked to complete.
    He said one of the priorities identified by the public is police visibility.
    “To show that we are not just responding to calls but are at other events as well, we are going to try and get some bicycles up and running and be a little more proactive there,” he said.
    He indicated that from the feedback received from residents, people want to see more police presence and this is difficult for him. He used an example that if someone lives on Main Street and they say they never see police presence it makes it difficult because when an officer goes out on patrol it only takes a few seconds for the vehicle to drive by.
    “Unless you happen to be watching out (your window) during those three to four seconds you are going to miss us and be under the impression that we are never around…Just because you don’t see the police, doesn’t mean we aren’t around,” he said.
    Charles said traffic was another area that was identified by residents. He said to help with this, the RCMP will be making random check stops at different times and days in the week, not only looking for impaired driving, but also for distracted driving as well as intersection violations and speeding.
    The third priority, Charles said, is property crime. “We will look at some areas that have a high volume of criminal activity and we are also going to look at offenders who are at high risk to be committing these offenses.” He said if there are persons who are repeat offenders they will be monitoring those individuals and if there are areas within the valley that are prone to crime, they will be monitoring those areas.
    “There are many different ways we can do this monitoring. Our presence may or may not be visible by the public,” he told The Mail.
    The last priority is a crime reduction strategy. “This is essentially monitoring the habitual offenders. It is identifying criminals who are committing most of the crimes in our community. Our goal is going to be to either have them re-evaluate their life and make some good choices, or else send them back to jail.”     
    He said the RCMP will be making sure people who are on conditions are abiding by those conditions and if they are not, there is zero tolerance and they will be laying charges to keep them in custody.

    Drumheller Mayor Terry Yemen wants flood mitigation answers and he is hoping to get them from newly re-elected MLA Rick Strankman.
    Yemen took no time sending a letter to Strankman after he was re-elected last Tuesday, looking for an update about the new NDP government’s policy in regards to flood mitigation.
    The letter stated that former MLA Hon. Fawcett - Environment and Sustainable Resource Development Minister, informed the town in April that the town was not approved for the first part of the funding from the government and that approval for the town’s application would be on the agenda in September. Yemen wants to make sure this commitment will remain  in place.
    “There are people’s lives that have been put on hold since the 2013 flood. It is completely unacceptable, and irresponsible for the provincial government to go on for as long as they did. If Drumheller was Calgary or High River, we would have had that funding by now but they keep forgetting about us. It is my job to keep reminding them that they have a bunch of work left to do here,” Yemen said.
    Not getting the funding in the first allocation, “came as a shock” he said. “We fully expected to be (approved). The package that we put in was comprehensive. It had everything they asked for, and then to find out that no they wanted an environmental impact study that they hadn’t asked for. We had done that too, that was part of our application, and we talked about all the elevations. The information is there they just, for whatever reason, chose not to accept it.”
    Yemen said the town will work with the Alberta Community Resilience Program (ACRP) to complete the grant application and re-submit it for September.
    “I don’t know what the NDP’s government plan is, so it is imperative and important that our MLA gets to speak to whoever as quickly as possible and gives us the information that we need,” Yemen said.
    “I am going to reach out to them too at the municipal level, but this is a provincial government, he is our MLA, he should be answering the questions. I am to the point now where if you knock on the door and you don’t get an answer then knock the door down and get us an answer because enough is a enough. It is time that people found out what the real plans are for flood mitigation in the Drumheller Valley.”