Summerlea and the Edmonton Police

At our community league board meeting in February, we had the pleasure of hosting two of the police constables who serve the Summerlea community. The constables were from the West Edmonton Mall Beats, which has six members in total. That’s more than the average of two per community, but our constables cover both West Edmonton Mall and our neighborhood.

They answered a lot of questions for us and gave us these important insights that can help us build and maintain a safer community.

Insight #1: Report all crimes

If you experience or spot a crime, report it. You may think that it’s not worth the trouble because it’s too late, or the police can’t do anything about it. Report it anyway. Incidents that are reported make it into the statistics, and that’s what drives police coverage.

Whether it’s vandalism, including graffiti, attempted break-ins, or even the theft of your sunglasses from your unlocked car, it’s a crime. Why should we excuse lawlessness?

And since we’ve had online reporting, it’s easy to do.

To see all the ways you can contact the police for any reason visit www.edmontonpolice.ca/contacteps.aspx

Insight #2: Get outside

Go out for walks in the neighborhood, especially the park. The more people out and about, the less likely we will have undesirable activity in our community.

And if you should see someone in distress—for instance passed out in the park or falling down drunk—you can do something without “getting involved.” Call 2-1-1 and a van will arrive and take the person to a shelter.

Speaking of 2-1-1, that’s a City of Edmonton service staffed around the clock with real people. Download the 211 Pocket Guide and you’ll have the numbers to all the kinds of services including crisis lines, shelters, and health and safety.