Red Deer crime stats comparison from 2019 to 2020. (Source: RCMP)

By Josh Hall and Troy Gillard

positive news despite "challenging year"

Red Deer crime rates trended down in 2020

Feb 23, 2021 | 2:31 PM

The city’s top cop says 2020 certainly was a challenging year for Red Deer RCMP.

Supt. Gerald Grobmeier, officer in charge of the detachment, says COVID-19 changed how they deliver policing service in Red Deer, but not the level of service they provide.

“It just kind of changed the way we go about doing business to not only protect our members, but to protect the community as well,” he explained, “Because if people are home isolating we can’t be out in the public doing our jobs trying to help improve safety.”

That has led to a lot more business done over the phone, as opposed to in person, which Grobmeier says makes community interaction more difficult.

“We were making good strides in continuing to improve our community outreach, be more targeted and talk to the right groups because it’s so important that we are hearing from our community groups. But they also have the chance to hear from us. That was really impacted in 2020 and continues to be impacted in 2021. It’s so hard to make these connections when we’re doing it on a phone or Zoom as opposed to being able to have a town hall, inviting people in to share ideas.”

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At the same time, Grobmeier says the pandemic has led to the start of some good policing initiatives within the detachment, including online crime reporting.

“One of the complaints I heard over the years was that people didn’t report a smaller crime because of how long it took. You had to wait on the phone on hold for 20 minutes or had to come to the front counter (at the detachment) and there were lines. This allows them to report those crimes in a very quick, simple manner, which is important for a number of reasons,” Grobmeier says.

“It’s important for people to be able to report those crimes and it’s important for us to get that information. It allows our criminal analysts to use that data (for us) to more effectively use our resources within the city.”

Online criminal record checks was another time-saving evolution born from the pandemic, Grobmeier notes.

Another recent change is the creation of the Social Diversion Program, a joint initiative with The City of Red Deer aimed at helping local individuals in distress.

“What we’ve observed so far is the public are starting to come on board recognizing that calling 2-1-1 as opposed to 9-1-1 can ensure that the clients receive the proper resources at the right time,” explained Insp. Holly Glassford. “It’s another tool in our toolbox, so to speak, to ensure our clients receive the right response.”

Glassford says the program comes at a good time as they are seeing an increasing number of calls for mental health issues.

“It’s challenging for obviously the community and it’s certainly challenging for our members responding to those types of calls that can be super traumatic.”

Grobmeier says crime rates in Red Deer continued trending downward last year.

“From 2016 to 2020 we saw a 36 per cent reduction in property crime. That’s a significant number for Red Deerians. And our persons crime, which always been fairly good here, was also reduced by six per cent over those five years,” he shared.

“From 2019 to 2020 we saw a 16 per cent reduction in break and enters, 35 per cent reduction theft of motor vehicles, theft over $5,000 was greatly reduced, theft under $5,000 was greatly reduced, fraud was greatly reduced. We saw significant reductions across the board.”

Grobmeier noted that crime rates in many of these areas were already trending downward prior to the onset of the pandemic.

“The beginning of 2021 is a continuation of what we saw in 2020,” he added, noting that people being out and about the city is helping when it comes to crime rates.

“Whether it be trails, parks, downtown or just being out in their neighbourhoods, people were out much more and I think it helped to bring people together again, which we’ve kind of gotten away from over the years because social media has allowed us to do that from home.

“But it also had a positive effect on reducing our crime because when people are out legitimately using these areas it just simply will drive down crime because criminals will not be in those areas. They are looking for crimes of opportunity and our citizens were taking away those opportunities just by being out using this great city of ours.”

Looking further at 2021, the latest Red Deer RCMP Annual Policing Plan approved by city council in October following community consultations has three main focus areas – crime reduction, public safety and community relations.

Grobmeier says the Social Diversion Program, expanding of alternative measures for enforcement and the new drug treatment court on the way for Red Deer will have significant impacts for the city moving forward.

He adds the physical and well-being of Red Deer RCMP members will also continue to be a priority going forward, especially as the pandemic continues.