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Tara Veer, mayor for the City of Red Deer, announced along with city manager Allan Seabrooke from City Hall on Monday, a series of upcoming public engagement sessions regarding crime and community safety in Red Deer.
Tackling Crime

City hosting crime and community safety public engagement sessions

Oct 28, 2019 | 2:31 PM

The City of Red Deer wants to hear what you feel should be done to tackle crime in our community.

Six public meetings will take place between November 4 and 15 as The City looks for input and ideas for ways of collectively reducing crime and making Red Deer safer.

“Crime and community safety is our number one priority right now,” says City Manager Allan Seabrooke. “We know we need to do things differently, but we do not have all the answers, and we certainly cannot do it alone. We are looking to the public to help us not only determine what we should and can do, but also to understand, own and take action alongside The City of Red Deer as we work to implement solutions that respond directly to the community safety issues we currently face.”

Red Deer, like many other communities across the province and the nation, currently faces drug, health and economic challenges that are affecting the city and the people who live here.

While The City of Red Deer has a number of crime reduction and community safety-related programs, initiatives and services already underway, there is always room for improvement, and The City wants to hear from citizens on what else we can do.

“The upcoming community meetings are about prioritizing community safety,” says Tara Veer, mayor for the City of Red Deer. “Over the last year, City Council and The City of Red Deer have worked to make decisions that acknowledge the social, economic and community safety challenges we face because of the economic, health and drug crisis in our province and western Canada. Despite this work, we know there is more to be done, and we need our community’s help with solutions that can be implemented in the short term so that everyone in our community feels safe in their home, neighbourhood and our city.”

Each of the public meetings will be facilitated with multiple simultaneous round-table conversations.

The meetings will include opportunities for participants to talk about crime and community safety-related issues, as well as ideas and solutions for how to address these issues.

There will also be information and resources available to support those who want to learn more about the 529 Garage bicycle registry, Citizens on Patrol and how to register their security camera as part of the CAPTURE program, which is aimed at helping police investigate crimes.

While this is not a come and go opportunity, we will do our very best to accommodate people who are unable to stay for the duration of the meeting.

Public meetings are scheduled as follows, each expected to last two hours:

o Monday, November 4 at 1:00 p.m. at the Northside Community Centre YMCA

o Tuesday, November 5 at 10:00 a.m. at Red Deer College in the Four Centres Building

o Wednesday, November 6 at 6:00 p.m. at Lindsay Thurber High School (Cafeteria)

o Thursday, November 7 at 6:00 p.m. at Eastview Middle School (Gymnasium)

o Wednesday, November 13 at 6:00 p.m. at St. Francis of Assisi Middle School (Gymnasium)

o Friday, November 15 at 10:00 a.m. at the Radisson Hotel on 67 Street

Interested participants are asked to register by visiting www.reddeer.ca/bettertogether or by calling 403-342-8111 so that we have an indication of how many people to expect.

However, all are welcome regardless of whether you register or not.