Monique Tamminga

Times Reporter

It’s been one year since Aldergrove business owners gathered for a heated meeting with police about the criminal element that had taken over the downtown core, preying on their businesses night after night.

At the time, Langley RCMP promised to step up enforcement and track the problem offenders in the area. They also announced they were bringing in special constables to work with the business community of Aldergrove to work as a liaison between residents and police.

“This is the one year anniversary of the spike we saw of break and enters in Aldergrove, when we met with the business owners. Since then B&Es are down 10 per cent,” reported Insp. Richard Konarski to Township council.

Crime in Aldergrove has been on a downward trend for the whole year, he said.

Konarski credits the work of police and the detachment’s crime analyst, who was able to determine who the prolific offenders are in the area. Charges are sticking against some of Aldergrove’s worst offenders.

One such criminal, whose rap sheet is more than two pages long and covers more than two decades, is currently behind bars after being arrested numerous times over the past year in Langley.

Police statistics show that business break-ins are down from 83 reported in 2007, with 51 in 2008 and 46 reported this year. Home break-ins are down from 96 to 70 in 2009.

Konarski also credits the business community and its efforts to help each other out and be the eyes and ears of the downtown.

Since that meeting, business owners have come together to detract thieves from having a run of the place.

A year ago, one business in Aldergrove was broken into more than 20 times in a two-year span.

Another business had everything taken over a few months from copper piping in the building to the company truck.

It seemed as if thieves had free reign of the downtown core the minute the sun went down.

Bruce Heslop, owner of Diamond Bar Equipment, who had been broken into 20 times, was very frustrated and said so to police. A year later Heslop has seen change.

“It’s a lot better,” he said.

The community police officers who were introduced a year ago have made a difference, getting to know each business owner.

Many in downtown Aldergrove call them “the Paul and Geoff show.”

“We see them around a lot and everyone has got to know them,” said Heslop.

Special Constables Paul Walker and Geoff Christmas are two former auxiliary constables, who wear red armbands to indicate they are not regular members of the RCMP, but still able to work on lowering crime. They spend the majority of their day patrolling from 260 Street to 276 Street, stopping in at local businesses along the way to check up on things and to offer advice for discouraging would-be thieves and vandals, while also keeping an eye on problems and relaying that information to the core enforcement officers.

At that same time last year, the Langley RCMP brought in two officers dedicated to working the downtown Aldergrove core.

Paul Bhogal, of Butler and Sons Plumbing, which has operated out of Aldergrove for more than two decades, has also seen an improvement in the past year.

“It’s been better,” he said.

Township fire and bylaw department also played a large role by condemning and demolishing abandoned homes where criminals had taken up residence.

One barn where squatters lived was so bad, with its occupants causing so much crime, that neighbours lined the street and cheered when the Township came in and had it knocked down.

“As an example, they were stealing gas around town and then selling it from the back of the property,” Konarski told council.

Those criminals who lived in that barn have moved to other cities or other provinces, he later confirmed.