Iqaluit resident starts Facebook page aimed at curtailing crime

This screen shot from the Iqaluit Crime Prevention and Information Facebook page features the grainy photo of a young man believed to be involved in a recent theft at an Iqaluit office.

A group of Iqaluit residents led by Iqaluit resident Travis Cooper hope to tackle crime in the city by using social media.

The Facebook page for a group called “Iqaluit Crime Prevention and Information,” went online July 29.

After that, 262 people joined the open group in less than 24 hours.

Cooper, who plans to run for MLA in the Nunavut territorial election this fall, said he created the group to spread information on theft and robberies in the city.

“For too long have we been seeing large amounts of crime run rampant within our beautiful city,” Cooper said in the description section of the group.

Cooper started listing items stolen from a different homes and vehicles during the month of July. Others have since chimed in with their own experiences.

In July, Cooper himself came home from vacation to find that his house had been burgled.

Thieves walked away from his home with two rifles, two televisions, two PlayStation 3 game consoles, and a Macbook Pro laptop, he said on his personal Facebook account.

Cooper is offering a $2,500 reward for “any information towards the arrest of our break and enter intruder(s)”

On the new Facebook page Cooper also posted a video capture photo from a security camera of a male who is alleged to have stolen “a few thousand dollars” from an Iqaluit office.

However, Cooper said that he doesn’t want to “wrongly incriminate anybody at any given time. There will never be names [given] on the site.”

Cooper took inspiration for the group from Iqaluit Sell/Swap — a local Iqaluit Facebook group where people can buy and sell goods.

“It’s been an issue going on for quite some time now, and an [ongoing] conversation on the swap site or Iqaluit Public Service Announcements,” Cooper told Nunatsiaq News.

Cooper said he wants the group to become a resource for others to learn how they can protect their homes and more effectively interact with neighbours and the RCMP.

“It gives a resource to link people together,” Cooper said, adding that it would be “amazing” if a similar group opened up in another Nunavut community.

According to the Nunavut bureau of statistics, in 2011 there were 210 reports of thefts in Iqaluit and 89 break-ins.

And Nunavut-wide, Statistics Canada said in 2012 there were six robberies, 157 motor vehicle thefts and 622 break and enters — that’s five times more than the rate of break- and-enters in Ontario, and just over three times the rate in Quebec.

Cooper said the new Facebook page could aid the RCMP too.

“There’s a great opportunity for great cooperation between the RCMP and the community. [The RCMP] are quite overworked at times, they do a tremendous job.

If the community is able to step up and help them out in any way, it’s a positive for all involved,” Cooper said.

Yvonne Niego, the communications officer for the Iqaluit RCMP, said the department welcomes this sort of group — if it’s responsible.

“When the community is proactive in a positive sense — of course, not in a vigilante sense, but in an information sharing, communications sharing, raising awareness way — absolutely I’d be in support of that,” Niego said.

Niego said she expects the moderator, Cooper, to “cut out anything” if things start “getting too carried away.”