BATTLEFORD — Battleford town council is asking people to report suspicious activity in the community whenever they see it.
Coun. Clayton Lazar raised the issue at the Sept. 2 council meeting.
"There has been an increase I've noticed in our town with some residents along the river valley," he said. "I have been assured by [Battlefords RCMP] Insp. [Ryan] How that our RCMP members are getting more present in our community, and I've seen that. But I do want to make sure that the people here in town, we are trying our best to keep maybe some unwanted people in our community out."
Mayor Ames Leslie noted it appears some transient people are in the community and residents are concerned about safety.
"There seems to be a growing trend of random people walking up and down the streets at all hours of the night," he said. "A lot of them have backpacks. They're not necessarily on principle doing wrong. But they are walking through the community and they have the perception of maybe not there for the best interest. So the ask is that if residents are seeing this, phone the RCMP."
Leslie said if the RCMP drive by the area and feel that these people are not part of the community and shouldn't be there, they have the authority and power to check into it.
"There's been a lot of door checkers as we see on video cameras, reports from people. People try to break into their cars or break into their garages," he said. "Just the more proactive reporting we can have through the RCMP I think would help everybody in the long run.
"It's fine to let your neighbours be aware of what's going on, but let's please call the RCMP as well," Leslie added. "Then they can have a record, a file on this, the time. It also gives council and myself as mayor more power to go back to our fellow elected officials within the government to try and bring more officers to our community, more better service from our law enforcement agencies."
