EDMONTON – Crimebeat – The Edmonton Police Service have several features on their website that are rather helpful and should be adopted by other police services and departments. First is the EPS’s “Daily Nab” where a story is relayed to the public about an incident where the police made an arrest in a case.
Today’s Daily Nab is titled, “Police Score ‘Hole-in-One’ with Golfer’s Assistance”. Here is the update: A golfer contacted police after he became suspicious that the expensive golf clubs he was interested in buying were stolen.
The golfer connected with a woman through online classifieds who was selling a set of top-of-the-line golf clubs estimated to be worth over $1,000, however, the golfer later saw another online message reporting a similar set of golf clubs as stolen.
Undercover police officers posing as potential buyers contacted the woman and confirmed that she was still selling the golf clubs. Police obtained an address in northeast Edmonton, and executed a search warrant on the residence, where the golf clubs and other stolen property were seized.
The golf clubs and other stolen property were returned to the rightful owners. The woman and a male were arrested and charged on September 22 with possession of stolen property and drug possession, and the woman was also charged with trafficking stolen goods.
The other feature on the EPS webpage is “Success Stories”. There is a regular feature updating the public on good news stories about what is happening within the department.
Both features are worth emulation by progressive police services. The “Daily Nab” allows members of the public to know something about what is happening, and about how they can better protect themselves from becoming a victim of a crime.
Sharing success stories allows the public to better engage and relate to the hard and often dangerous work that police officers are doing in their community. With growing numbers of police services across Canada, the Edmonton Police and Toronto Police Services being two of the leaders, sharing more information with the public and media as well as engaging Social Media like Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube are increasingly common.
As time goes along, it is very likely more police services will be emulating the leadership of those services blazing a trail forward with expanded community engagement.