Edmonton police stepped up enforcement in Garneau and Old Strathcona this week, and are giving residents tips on how to help prevent crime as well.
The Edmonton Police Service’s Community Action Team (CAT) were deployed in the south Edmonton neighbourhoods on Wednesday night and will be there until Saturday night.
“We’re inundating communities that we’ve identified that are having struggles, crime-trending that sort of thing. We bring in external resources to complement our internal resources,” said Acting Sgt. Ian McFatridge.
“We essentially inundate the communities with mass enforcement.”
Part of the deployment includes holding a crime prevention meeting to address issues of crime in the area to residents.
The meeting was held on Friday night and residents were taught how to spot a drug house, as well as given information on how to prevent crimes.
“Problems are always changing, it’s an evolving situation,” said Caroline Smith, who attended the meeting and lives in the area.
“You find out what those are and how to react.”
McFatridge says the Garneau and Old Strathcona communities mostly see property-related crimes, including break-and-enters and theft.
He says CAT deployments and crime prevention meetings with residents positively impact the community.
“You see the benefits right after. The targets you’ve identified, the problem people, seem to leave right after, and it’s got a lasting effect,” McFatridge said.
“We’ve had positive feedback.”
Kathy Bruce-Cavanagh said she learned a lot from the session and thinks more residents should attend.
“I think it is great the Edmonton Police Service is reaching out to the community and letting them know they’re there and they can help,” Bruce-Cavanagh said.
“I was disappointed not more people came because I think there was a lot of good information and I think they were certainly ready to answer questions.”
The Community Action Team has held similar sessions in communities around the city and plan to expand to more areas that see high crime rates.
The Garneau and Old Strathcona deployment was CAT's 12th deployment.
CAT is part of the EPS’ violence reduction strategy.
