Community tips, targeted enforcement credited for crime reduction in Lloydminster: RCMP

Two recent drug busts happened after tips from residents.

“The two residences that we had done the recent search warrants on weren’t on our radar at all, until the public came forward and said, you know, guys wanna maybe check this place out,” he said.

Nutbrown said his team uses “sustained pressure” on repeat offenders through compliance checks and frequent follow‑ups.

“If you’re on our radar and you’ve been incarcerated and you’re out, we want to come and talk to you and put you back on our radar and say, we’re gonna be paying attention to you,” he said.

The unit has also solved complex cases. One investigation into a fatal hit‑and‑run on 50th Avenue identified both the driver and passenger in the vehicle, but police never announced it publicly because the driver died before charges could be laid.

Nutbrown shared another case of a prolific shoplifter caught stealing meat from a grocery store. “He ended up actually getting 60 days in custody because of his record and things like that,” he said.

Investigators are also seeing more cases of child sexual abuse material and intimate image sharing by youth.

Staff Sgt. Jerry Nutbrown (screenshot/City of Lloydminster)

The unit is trying new approaches, such as a GPS‑equipped “bait bike” to catch thieves, which Nutbrown said the team identified as a significant issue last summer.

“We wired up with a GPS tracker and we put it out in the community… and we’ve had quite good success in the people taking our bikes,” Nutbrown said.

Visible policing is also having an effect. When a provincial motorcycle traffic unit visited recently, calls involving the unhoused population dropped sharply. However, Nutbrown said he will have to look into the reason, as he is uncertain about the logic behind the phenomenon.

“Those three days, the calls, they just dropped, like almost right down to nothing,” he said.

The detachment has been expanding foot patrols downtown since last fall and councillors said the difference is noticeable.

“I’ve seen way less of the unhoused hanging out anywhere or walking around in the back alleys and things like that… so it’s working and I think it’s doing a very good job,” Coun. David Lopez said.

Coun. Michael Diachuk added that community members have told him the visible police presence is making them feel safer.

“The feedback that I’ve heard… is that that presence has an impact on both the community members as well as the people that might be doing something silly.”

While noting the positive impact, Lopez raised a question about whether the unhoused population had simply moved elsewhere.

Nutbrown replied that it was too early to say for sure.

“It seems that the numbers have spread out a bit more rather than being concentrated in an area or whatever,” he said. “But that’s just my impression… we’d have to go to numbers to get more validity to that.”

Regarding the department staffing, Nutbrown said the unit is nearly at full strength and continues to work with teams such as ALERT and the Saskatchewan Trafficking Response Team.

He wants to see even more tips coming in and plans to boost public messaging about how residents can report concerns.

“We’re very appreciative of that because the city is sizable and we can’t be on every street to be able to see comings and goings,” he said.

“Hopefully the word’s getting out that, you know, they’re putting pressure and we need to toe the line.”

Anyone with information about suspicious activity can contact the Lloydminster RCMP detachment at 780‑808‑8400. Anonymous tips can be submitted through Crime Stoppers at 1‑800‑222‑8477 or online.

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Kenneth.Cheung@pattisonmedia.com

by Kenneth Cheung

Community tips, targeted enforcement credited for crime reduction in Lloydminster: RCMP

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