A determined group of rural residents in southeast Saskatchewan have decided that they've had enough.About 50 people gathered at a local farm on July 26 to set the stage for the establishment if a Rural Crime Watch program in an area extending south of the city of Estevan down to the United States border.The group has received encouragement and information from the Estevan detachment of the RCMP and they have pledged their co-operation with the policing agencies in an attempt to slow down the crime rate in the rural areas."This will result in an ongoing series of random patrols, two people per vehicle, heading out on our rural grid roads and highways, especially in the latter part of the evening or early morning hours," said Dennis Blackburn, one of the coordinators of the project."There's too much vandalism, theft, erratic and impaired driving going on in our neighbourhoods, a lot of machinery is getting damaged or destroyed," he siad .The knowledge that these people are out there, willing to take down license plate numbers and report the movement of unfamiliar vehicles around the farms, will help a great deal said Estevan detachment RCMP Sergeant Daryl Milo."Most of the people at the meeting were willing to get involved in the program," said Blackburn. "If we can deter a few potential cases of vandalism or theft in rural Estevan just by showing up where and when the thieves don't expect us, should be pretty positive," said Blackburn.A more complete report on the details of the Rural Crime Watch will be featured in the August 4th edition of the Estevan Mercury.
