Your crime needs to be reported! If you witness or are the victim of a crime, please report it.
We would also appreciate if you commit a crime, you report that to us, too. Most don’t, but yes, it has happened.
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Many crimes do not get reported and there is virtually nothing we can do about those. Posting about it online does not equate to reporting it to police, although, social media can assist in locating property and people, etc.
When you do report something, we need details, many, many details. Exactly what details will vary from crime to crime, but some details are standard across the board.
Date, time, location and what happened are all pretty standard. Descriptions are key in every instance. A bird taking your golf ball doesn’t count.
If property is involved, we need details about the property. Photos and video are excellent for information and evidence, however, they typically do not show everything and can even be up for interpretation of what was recorded.
Recently, someone I personally know was a victim of theft in town. I was asked if it mattered if they reported it and my response was, absolutely. Even if a victim doesn’t want anything done by police, we still need the reports as they may help with the incident or, another victim.
Making police aware of crimes also helps us gauge crime areas and trends, which helps us focus or tailor our response. If a certain area is relatively low in crime, we will focus our efforts where it is more prevalent.
Reports of suspicious people or vehicles can be difficult for us to address. The main important factor, besides the description, is, what is
suspicious?
Someone looking in windows, people looking around as if scouting for others in the area, a person with a covered face hanging around a financial institution or liquor/cannabis store, these are suspicious behaviours.
A person walking down a street is not suspicious behaviour, even if they aren’t from that neighbourhood. This is where biases can come into play in that someone or something is deemed not to belong.
At our town hall meeting on Jan. 22, a question was asked about how to know if police should be called. There was some discussion with the group but the basic rule is, if you get yourself to a point of wondering if you should call, you likely should.
You get that ‘feeling’ because you may have engaged your subconscious which determined that something isn’t right based on your past experiences and knowledge. A gut feeling does have validity but it can be difficult to put into words.
Ask yourself, what legitimate reason do they have for doing what they are doing? They could be looking for a lost dog or maybe were playing Frisbee and it went over fences. Possible, but unlikely at 3 in the morning.
– Staff Sgt. Jerry Nutbown, is the NCO in charge of the Lloydminster RCMP detachment’s General Investigation Section. Stay tuned for future articles from the Lloydminster RCMP.
This column was originally published in the Feb. 13, 2025, edition of the Meridian Source.
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