This week is Alberta Crime Prevention Week, intended to raise awareness about what communities can do to promote community safety through the prevention of crime.

Safe Homes

Our homes are very important to us and during the COVID-19 pandemic individuals are spending more time at home than ever before. In addition the usual tips about taking steps to ensure that your home and property are secured, Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design or "CPTED (pronounced sep-ted) is the science around the design and effective use of physical space to reduce both the incidence and fear of crime. Aspects such as locks, windows, doors, fencing, cameras, lighting, and vegetation are just some of the tools in the CPTED toolkit. The practice of CPTED ensures that all spaces are defined, properly designed, and have a designated use to deflect and deter crime within and around properties.

Safe Communities

The best way to deal with problems is to stop them before they start. Throughout the pandemic we have heard it said that “We are all in this together”. The same can be said for crime prevention strategies. Communities are safer when citizens act together. Neighbourhood safety is a shared responsibility, in which both citizens and police have important roles. Small steps are often the best way to start building a community, which could involve such simple things as alerting neighbours when suspicious activity seems to be happening and reporting to police by calling 911. Many people believe that the police do not want to be called if something suspicious is happening, but this is not true. By calling 911 police are able to respond immediately to the area to check it out.

Online Safety

In addition to protecting our physical spaces, we also need to take steps to keep ourselves and our children safe online. While we stay safe indoors, individuals are spending more time online; learning, connecting with one another and conducting business transactions. This increased activity has unfortunately resulted in increased frauds and scams. To protect yourself online always protect your personal information and be on the look out for phishing scams. The best way to deal with phishing and other spam emails is to delete them on sight. Don’t open them, don’t reply to them, don’t open any attachments or click on any links, and definitely don’t send any money, bitcoins or gift cards in response to unsolicited emails.

Talk to your children about online safety and encourage them to let you know when something goes wrong. Set standards for what your kids can and cannot do online, teach them to keep personal information private and monitor their activities.

The Medicine Hat Police Service Community Safety Unit looks forward to continuing our crime prevention community programming when it is safe to do so. Until then, take care of yourselves, your families and your neighbours. If you have any questions or concerns contact the MHPS non emergency line 403-529-8481 or 911 in an emergency.

Media Contact:

Sgt Darlene Garrecht
Community Safety Unit
Medicine Hat Police Service
Ph: 403-529-8451