RCMP taking notice of rural crime, but don't know yet if it is on the rise

In light of recent stories about rural crime, the RCMP is reminding people to stay vigilant, look after neighbours and to not take the law into their own hands.

It follows an attempted robbery of a farm hand Monday in Fiske, Sask.

Members at the Rosetown RCMP detachment are still investigating.

That incident, along with other anecdotal reports coming out, have people in rural areas concerned.

But RCMP Sgt. Earl Leblanc hasn’t said whether rural crime is on the rise.

“All we can go with is the amount of calls we receive and right now, I don’t have those numbers with me,” Leblanc told reporters on Wednesday.

Leblanc maintains the RCMP respond to and investigate all calls that come in, regardless of the area.

“I can reassure you that we actually deal with any situation that comes forward and any person that reports a crime, we will investigate it accordingly,” Leblanc insisted.

There have been reports of the RCMP grossly understaffed in rural areas but Leblanc insists the challenges are no different to what any organization faces.

“Obviously some resources, there are challenges across the province, I mean we are aware of that, but what ends up happening, we do deploy all members and we deploy members to deal with certain occurrences and certain investigations.”