Cold Lakers can find out the crime in their neighbourhood with crime map

The crime map will be linked to the City of Cold Lake’s website. 

Cold Lake residents will have a way to see what crimes are happening in their neighbourhood.

On the RCMP’s request, a crime map of Cold Lake will be linked to the city’s website so that people can stay informed on where vehicle thefts, break and enters, and mischief is happening.

The province-wide initiative is meant to give more accurate information to the public and limit rumours on social media.

The map has been live for almost six months in various communities, including Bonnyville.

“I think people get a kick out of it. The idea is to provide more information for people,” said Mayor Craig Copeland.

Once a crime is posted by the RCMP it is taken down after 14 days.

Users will be able to see the street the offence occurred at, but not the precise address.

Currently, the map shows 40 mischief files, 14 break and enters, nine theft over/under $5000, five theft from motor vehicles, and three stolen vehicle files.

The information was presented at the city’s corporate priorities meeting Tuesday.

The crime map can be seen here.

Provincial RCMP to highlight property crimes

The Alberta RCMP has launched the Data and Innovation web page which will highlight key crime statistics and information on policing initiatives.

The statistics will be updated on a four times a year with the first set of figures just released this month.

The data shows changes in key property crime indicators that are intended to measure the overall state and trend of property crime in Alberta RCMP jurisdictions. Reporting periods include:

• January to March 2018 and January to March 2019
• January to December 2017 and January to December 2018
• 2014 to 2018

The first quarter crime numbers in 2019 show a decrease in the four highlighted areas from 2018 over January-March.

Possession of stolen goods crimes is down 15 per cent. Theft (over and under) $5000 is down 6 per cent. Theft of motor vehicles is down 5 per cent and break and enters down 4 per cent.