RCMP DOING WHAT IT TAKES TO MAKE MILLET SAFE

When it comes to meeting its priorities set for the town of Millet,
Wetaskiwin RCMP is far exceeding its expectations.

Wetaskiwin Staff Sgt. Gerry Rhodes and Insp. Curtis Zablocki
presented their findings at the Millet town council meeting March 10.

Rhodes presented the Wetaskiwin RCMP's annual performance plan in
regards to policing in Millet.

The four priorities designated last year, which remain the same for
2010, were: reduce the availability of drugs and reduce alcohol
abuse, reduce graffiti and other vandalism, reduce occurrences of
break, enters and thefts, and contribute to community safety.

"Under the reducing the availability of drugs and alcohol, with
regards to the search warrants, under the Drug Act, we had five last
year and we wanted to bring that up to eight, and this is not just in
Millet, but the whole community we police, we ended up doing 10. We
exceeded what we wanted to do there.

"I think part of that is we've been fortunate getting some more
information in the area here from various sources.

"As well, some of the more major crimes have decreased somewhat so
we've been able to task our GIS (General Investigation Section) unit
and our CRT unit (Crime Reduction Team) focusing on drugs a little
more because as we all know, and you likely know, drugs, and the
dealing of drugs and the use of drugs, has a spill over effect.

"If you are having a drug problem in your town, you're going to have
more break and enters, and thefts into vehicles and those type of
things," said Rhodes.

"One of the ways we combat that is to target the drug traffickers and
hope they will be removed and going to prison, or they will find they
don't want to live in Millet because the cops are on them all the
time, that sort of thing.

"We hope to do more of that in the new year, we have something in
place to kick start that and get it going, so you may see an increase
in those drug sort of things in the area around here, the rural area
and in the community."

On the flip side of the drug issue is the importance of educating the public.

The Wetaskiwin RCMP, said Rhodes, set a goal of 147 sessions, but the
detachment has conducted 211 to date.

The officer with the Wetaskiwin RCMP's DARE full-time program, aimed
at teaching the youth of the dangers of drugs, is conducting sessions
at the Griffiths-Scott Middle School in Millet, and will continue to
do so over the next few weeks.

"That's one of those things that we really don't know at the end of
the day what effect it has, but anecdotally it does have an effect.

"One thing, that I know, it does is bring a positive image of police
into young minds, and as they grow up, guess what, they are not
necessarily scared of the police. They will respect them, they don't
hate them," said Rhodes.

"Over time, we get more interaction with our communities, we hope to
have less crime . more two-way communication."

As for reducing graffiti and other vandalism, Rhodes said the
detachment had set a goal to reduce the matters by five per cent from
631 to 600.

"It came in at 568, so that's 10 per cent, so we were able to double
that. There are two reasons for that: We've been having conversations
with students at the schools because predominately a large chunk of
these (offences) are copycats where you may have a gang member or
someone doing some graffiti, and initially three or four years ago
that's what we were getting.

"But then we started to get what we refer to as kids graffiti, and
that's predominately what we've been getting.

"Having said that, there's been a huge decrease in that. It really
hasn't been too much of an issue in Millet, there was a bit at the
school there, but unless you folks know something I don't know, it
really isn't a big issue in Millet - touch on wood.

"And I think if it becomes an issue, I think we can solve it pretty
quickly - that's the benefit of a small community, it's hard to keep
(things like that) quiet with local kids doing it."

As for break and enters and thefts, Rhodes said for the area the
number of cases dropped 19 per cent, far exceeding its five per cent target.

Turning to contributing to the overall safety of Millet, Rhodes said
it certainly isn't an issue.