Lacombe County is planning to train some of their staff in Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, or CPTED, so they can create a list of recommendations for how to best protect themselves and their property from crime, specifically in a rural location.

Deputy Reeve for the County Ken Wigmore says they used to have an officer who was trained in Crime Prevention through Environmental Design, but since he left the County a few years ago, they want to train others to fill that role.

“Council is quite concerned about all the crime that’s going on around here, so we wanted some of our officers to be trained in it, we also wanted some of our planning staff to have a very good background in it, because we can direct our developers and our ratepayers and anybody else in what they should be doing when they design their acreages or their houses to protect themselves from crime.”

Wigmore says there are some easy ways to protect your property if you are building a new home.

“There certain things you can do, like not put your trees in front of your house, get the place well lit, where you put your driveway, lots of different things like that.”

This new policy is not mandatory, just a recommendation on ways to deter criminal behaviour through influencing the offenders decisions that go into committing a crime, such as opportunity and convenience.