By Andrea Nicholl
An expert criminologist and a Lloydminster RMCP sergeant agree residents shouldn’t evaluate their safety solely upon crime rate statistics.
Sgt. Ken Marchand, acting detachment commander of the Lloydminster RCMP, and Greg Jenion, expert criminologist and faculty member of Kwantlen Polytechnic University, say Lloyd’s nine per cent year-over-year increase in criminal code offences should not be interpreted as an exclusive safety indicator.
“It is well known to criminologists that there are serious shortcomings with official measures of crime,” said Jenion. “Does the average citizen view the crime rate as a measure of police practice? I don’t think so. I think the average citizen looks at the crime rate and says ‘I thought the crime rate means if it’s going up things are getting worse, and if it’s going down things are getting better.’ These numbers are just not good risk indicators.”
Jenion says people need better information regarding crime so they can calibrate official statistics and make an accurate measure of safety and security in their community and neighbourhoods. He says it’s imperative to move past a record of index offences and move towards victimization surveys and environmental scans which evaluate how the public perceives issues of safety in their communities, how it may change over time, what problems the city is facing and what is happening in the community.
“The police can only do so much in reducing crime. We need to go beyond what works in reducing crime, and we need to look at the organizational and policy context in which crime prevention and community safety takes place,” said Jenion.
He suggests that Lloydminster must approach crime as a community effort, and not leave the responsibility entirely to local RCMP. Crime is bigger than the police, says Jenion, and it requires cooperation and involvement from the municipal government, businesses, schools and residents.
Marchand agrees and says community involvement is crucial to the detection, reduction and prevention of crime. He encourages residents to take an active role in crime prevention by target hardening their environments, reporting suspicious behaviour and becoming the eyes and ears of the community.
“Crime prevention contributes to the overall sustainable development of communities and when we make progress on that we make communities in which people want to live in,” said Jenion.
Marchand says the city’s growth, combined with staffing shortages, has put increased demands on policing, but the RCMP are doing their best with the resources available.
“Crime rates are fluid, they go up and they go down,” said Marchand. “Something that I want to make clear is that Lloydminster is not Dodge City, it’s not the Wild West. I don’t want the community to think it’s unsafe for the community to go for a walk in the park. There is a core group that is involved that causes us some concern and they’re definitely on our radar and we are targeting them.”
“We shouldn’t make decisions about leaving our community or moving out of neighbourhood just because the crime rate goes up seven, eight or nine per cent,” said Jenion.