By Josh Hall and Sheldon Spackman

success story

CAPTURE program proving successful in solving crime

Nov 24, 2019 | 2:11 PM

A Red Deer business manager is encouraging others to help deter crime by registering for the RCMP’s CAPTURE program.

Launched last July, Community Assisted Policing Through Use of Recorded Evidence (CAPTURE) is a program that enables businesses and residents alike to register their security cameras with Red Deer RCMP. By doing so, RCMP receive assistance with their investigations, and achieving their overall crime prevention goals for Red Deer.

James Vernon, branch manager at KMS Tools and Equipment, says he sees great benefits for the community coming from CAPTURE.

“I’m originally from Vancouver and I moved here about a year and a half ago,” says Vernon. “So when I noticed that the CAPTURE program was available for us or anybody else to be a part of it, I took the liberty of signing up KMS Tools so that we could be more proactive in our crime fighting abilities, instead of just complaining about the problem.”

His business has fallen victim to crimes in the past, he admits.

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“We do on a regular basis as any retail store does,” says Vernon. “We’ve had two break-ins in the past two years, so it’s a serious enough problem. We need to address it for sure.”

For KMS Tools and Equipment, Vernon says it simply made sense financially to sign up for the CAPTURE program, which he did three weeks ago.

“We’ve already got the camera system in place,” says Vernon. “It doesn’t cost me any money or very little time even, and it’s kind of a win-win for everybody. The camera system is great because at any point in time, the quality of our cameras is quite good, so we can literally focus right in to something like plate numbers or do facial recognition.”

S/Sgt. Jay Peden with Red Deer RCMP says the program has proven to be successful thus far, even in outside the box ways.

“We do have a cross-section of our community with children who have cognitive disabilities, autism for instance, as well we have an aging population, some of whom have dementia and Alzheimer’s, and they sometimes wander,” Peden says. “We are getting calls to assist with wellbeing checks or assist to locate. We can get a hold of a registrant and ask them to check the cameras to see if they have any footage to help us advance an investigation.”

The program currently has 170 registrants, well ahead of the 100 Peden says they’d hoped to have by July 2020.

Peden adds he’s received calls about CAPTURE from other detachments across Alberta, as well from at least one in Ontario.

“It is 100 per cent private, the information that is being supplied by the registrants is not being shared. It’s just for the RCMP. And if we have a request for video, we actually still have to come to the registrant directly to access it,” says Peden. “With everyone working together, the RCMP, the community, we can move towards solving some of the property crime we’ve seen in the city.”