The Olds and District Chamber of Commerce hosted a special crime prevention presentation on Tuesday morning, together with members of the Olds RCMP Detachment, Olds Fire Department and a member of the RCMP Community Safety and Well Being Branch, highlighting how environmental design could deter crime to from your business or property.
Carolyn McTighe is a Crime Prevention Liaison with the RCMP in Southern Alberta, and spoke about Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design and some easy steps business and home owners alike can both use to prevent themselves from becoming targets.
McTighe highlighted the use of lighting, cameras and sight lines in helping keep your property secure.
She also encourages business to keep their window space as open as possible, in order to allow a passerby a chance to look within your store and not allow for any mischief or thievery behind signs or billboards.
The presentation also talked about the importance of ensuring your property doesn’t have too many “quiet areas” or places where thieves could hide themselves from the road or from your sight lines within the building.
McTighe also took time to talk about a new program that the RCMP has launched, a free safety assessment done for your property that will provide you a report with some recommendations that can better prevent your property or business from becoming a target.
Mitch Price, Community Resource Officer with the Olds RCMP, commented that the presentation was really insightful. He added that the RCMP are looking to get the word out about Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, with hopes it can help deter would be criminals.
If you are interested in having a free safety evaluation done of your property, contact McTighe directly at 587 832 2368 or email Carolyn.McTighe@rcmp-grc.gc.ca.