Publicly accessible crime mapping coming for Red Deerians

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“Because there have been (social media) groups that have emerged that are essentially doing informal or volunteer crime mapping, we felt that in accordance with the new Alberta best practice, we would make the official statistics readily available.”

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Councillor Buck Buchanan originally brought this idea forward with a notice of motion in 2015 – it was unanimously supported by the council of the day.

Buchanan, a former member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, says it’s dangerous that citizens have started doing this on their own.

“Sometimes that information is not correct, so then that does actually feed into misinformation or disinformation to folks, and that’s not what we want,” he says.

“I know there are fears from the realtors and from neighbourhoods that you’re going to marginalize them, and that’s not the case at all. It’s just the awareness to the neighbourhood and to the public.”

Buchanan also points out there are many other avenues for residents to engage in the fight against crime, such as joining a neighbourhood watch and being more neighbourly.

Crime mapping, once ready to go, will provide crime data for the last 14 days, while data older than 14 days will be automatically removed. Crime types to be represented on the map will include theft from motor vehicle, theft of motor vehicle, break & enter, theft over/under $5000, mischief, and missing persons.

The map will get as specific as naming the street, but not the addresses of homes.

“The RCMP has identified these ones as probably the least risky as far as misinterpretation or being utilized in an inappropriate way,” says Paul Goranson, Director of Protective Services. “They’ve done that analysis already, and they may evolve it over time, but it’s only been up and running for a year now.”

Council also heard that during a Nov. 2018 meeting of the boards of local Neighbourhood Community Associations, attendees did express “general interest” in making this type of information available. There were, however, concerns brought forward regarding stigmatization, misinterpretation and misuse of data.

Implementation will cost The City nothing as the RCMP is already prepared to offer it in any of its jurisdictions.