Southeast Division officers are inviting all citizens to join them to warm up by the barbecue this week in Bonnie Doon.

“Keeping our neighbourhoods safe is a community effort,” says Acting Staff Sgt. Ben Fox with Southeast Division.  “This week, the Edmonton Police Service will be working with several community partners to reduce crime and violence with the Community Action Team (CAT) deployment.”

The Community Action Team (CAT) is part of the ongoing EPS Violence Reduction Strategy. It is a unified, focused, policing concept, with an organized mobile police unit created for maximum contact, enforcement and education. The CAT deployments are highly visible and have been successful in addressing a wide range of criminal and social issues.

“Officers will be patrolling in the community and conducting curfew checks,” says Acting Staff Sgt. Fox. “We will also be following up on individuals with outstanding warrants.”

Southeast Division is the only area with active community patrols that regularly volunteer their time to observe and report crime to the Edmonton Police Service.

The Mill Woods, Southeast Central Community Patrols and the Citizens Patrol Radio Network (CPRN) will be participating in this week’s CAT initiative. They patrol neighbourhoods by driving around and reporting suspicious vehicles, persons and incidents to police. The community patrols consists of about 25 dedicated volunteers who help EPS patrol over 12 communities within southeast Edmonton about two to three times every month.

Southeast Division will be hosting a community barbecue over the four-day CAT deployment in the Bonnie Doon Shopping Centre parking lot (near Safeway). Police officers and members from the Neighbourhood Empowerment Team (NET) will be on hand to serve free hamburgers and distribute crime prevention materials to the public and will give away free anti-theft license plate screws for vehicles. The Forest Heights NET team will be focusing on garage break and enters using the Notification of Community Crime (NOCC) program.

EPS officers will be focused on reducing crimes through high-visibility policing, proactive foot patrols in hot spots, management of prolific offenders, and traffic enforcement.

Some of the targeted areas will include: Bonnie Doon, King Edward Park, Holyrood, 82 Avenue, Ottwell, Forest Heights, Idlewyide, and various industrial sites.

Enforcement units will be targeting criminal activity in the area and social agencies will provide support to vulnerable persons. Traffic STAT teams, patrol and bylaw officers, Public Safety Compliance Team, EPS Cadets, Mill Woods Community Patrol, Southeast Central Community Patrol, Community Police Radio Network, NET, Edmonton Transit Security, Bonnie Doon Community League, Bissell Centre and Boyle Outreach will target crime “hot-spots” in the neighbourhood.

Media are invited to join EPS officers for a chance to discuss and witness first-hand how CAT works within the community on Thursday, Feb. 26, 2015 at 4 p.m. in the Bonnie Doon Mall parking lot (by Safeway).

For more information about the EPS Violence Reduction Strategy, please visitwww.edmontonpolice.ca/vrs.