Saint Andrews Considers Creating New Position To Safeguard Against Rise In Crime

Mayor Brad Henderson of the Town of Saint Andrews says the municipality is looking to take a proactive approach to the rise in crime taking place across the province. Henderson said the town is considering creating a town position that is a blended role between a by-law enforcement officer as well as someone who will also work as a set of eyes on the community who could report to the RCMP in the event that suspicious behaviour is detected.

"Maybe that town employee could actually do a few night shifts in the community, using a town vehicle to drive around and report any suspicious activity that we have," said Henderson. "We have policing services right now, but to give another set of eyes, that person would never approach anyone. That's not their role, but they're just there to report."

Henderson said that rural Southwest New Brunswick is not immune to the rise in crime that we are seeing across Canada and he wants to ensure the Saint Andrews community is safeguarding itself from preventible crime.

"If you look at all of the communities in Charlotte County, it seems like crime, drugs, and even the number of people who are unsheltered are on the rise," said Henderson. "It definitely seems like the last few years that it is growing at a rapid pace, unfortunately. So a number of the mayors in Charlotte County have gotten a little bit more vocal, including myself, where we actually asked to have a meeting with Public Safety Minister Kris Austin to discuss the policing situation in New Brunswick. And what came out of that is the minister decided he was going to go to every regional service commission across the province. So he just visited our region. The meeting was at the Algonquin in St. Andrews and the meeting was on policing. Only the RCMP was present, as were representation from every community. The primary invitations went out to the mayors and chief administrative officers of every community. And then we had an honest conversation. Wasn't really sure which way the meeting was going to go, but right off the get go, Minister Austin has identified that he does understand that we do have a challenge."