The Central Alberta Crime Prevention Centre gave a presentation on the different ways to protect your yourself, home, and belongings in the event of criminal activity at the Lacombe Memorial Centre.

As the Lacombe Neighbourhood Watch program begins to get its bearings, Thelma Tenhove, coordinator of the Neighbourhood Watch Program, thought the presentation would be great for people to get started in public safety.

“I felt it’s really important for the greater community to get to know information that we as members of the Neighborhood Watch Program and citizens on patrol already know, but thought that maybe the community would like to know this information as well in order to keep them safe, protected, and help make our community a better community,” said Tenhove.

In addition to educating the public on theft safety, Tenhove wanted to get the word out that the Neighborhood Watch, and the Lacombe Community Watch Association are both active in Lacombe and always seeking more members.

As for the presentation, Terry-Lee Ropchan, executive director of the Central Albertan Crime Prevention Centre gave a very informative and even humorous production.

According to Ropchan, crime prevention starts with clear communication between that of the public and the police. Currently, the biggest problem with crime prevention is that people are not regularly reporting crime and often doubt whether or not they should report an incident or not.

“When something is suspicious in your neighborhood, don’t doubt whether you should report or not actually report it. If the police know where all the suspicious activity is happening, they can focus in those areas and stop it before it becomes the crime.”

Ropchan believes that not reporting crimes stems from people not really recognizing the value of what they’ve seen. She encourages people to report any unusual activity no matter how big or small the situation might appear and warns against assuming that another bystander will make the call.

Another one of Robchan’s recommendations is the power of saying ‘no’. Most often people affected by scam calls, emails, door to door scams, as well as many others can avoid a misfortunate situation by just saying no.

Unfortunately, for Central Albertans, the most popular scams are tax scams and romance scams. Canadian Tax Revenue agency scams are often put out by either phone call or by email, but Robchan reminds the public that most often the real CRA will be sending you letters and if someone were really in danger of tax fraud, they would most likely be receiving a lot of mail. However, when in doubt always call either the bank or revenue Canada from a number that you know is correct.

More dangerously, romance scams are a little harder to detect because people’s emotions and feelings become a factor used to the criminal’s benefit.

“These are people who are looking for people that are lonely that don’t have a whole lot of a support base and they target you at times when you are most vulnerable…” said Robchan.

“If you’re willing to send them one hundred dollars to help with a phone bill so that they can keep phoning you then that escalates and becomes more, so that is not okay. If that person won’t meet you within a very short time of starting to talk to you then you need to end the conversations. If that person says ‘I love you’ within a week or two end the conversation.”

In terms of homes, Robchan believes that we should look at our home as a series of layers and that if there are more layers for a thief to get through the harder it will be to commit the crime. The more difficult it is to commit crimes the less the likelihood there is of crimes being committed. This means buying strong locks for your home, security cameras, window coverings and even a watchful neighbor all count as layers to your family’s home and security.

With the help of Tenhove’s neighbourhood watch program and Robchan’s presentation. Lacombe is just a little bit more protected from scams, thieves, and misjustices. If you or your neighbour would like to get involved in Lacombe’s Neighborhood Watch program you can visit Tenhove’s Facebook page by clicking here, emailing lacombeenwcoordinator@gmail.com, or calling 403-782-7704.