The community of McLeese Lake will once again be holding a meeting on establishing Rural Crime Watch.
Area D Director Steve Forseth said several community members approached him about having the discussion once again after another attempt of theft in the community last month
“I’ve been a victim of crime myself and, of course, I always sympathize with those that are victims of crime,” Forseth said.
“But as I say rural crime watch programs are best if they are driven by the community and I think with this recent incident at McLeese Lake it’s a reenergizing of the emphasis for this kind of program.”
Four suspects were arrested on Aug. 30 by the Williams Lake RCMP after eight stolen recreational vehicles were recovered from a property in the McLeese Lake area.
The meeting will take place on Sept. 18 at the McLeese Lake Community Hall starting at 7 pm.
Forseth said if there is a genuine interest in establishing rural crime watch he will invite Dave Dickson back to the community for another meeting.
He adds that he has also submitted a memo to the CRD Board to further explore the topic regionally at their next board meeting on Friday, Sept 13 as there have also been issues in Areas A, B, G, H, and L.
“A number of my colleagues want to hire more RCMP officers for rural areas,” Forseth said.
“It’s, unfortunately, more complex than just hiring RCMP officers, so I’m hoping to have the discussion on Friday with the Cariboo Regional District Board and then from there I would expect that we come out with some sort of position paper that we could talk to federal and provincial cabinet ministers during 2020 including the 2020 UBCM Convention.”
“The other thing is I’m going to be asking the Board for some funding out of my area D Director initiative fund for rural crime watch signage, and if that’s approved between all these different steps hopefully we can make our rural communities a much safer place to live,” Forseth added.