Residents were left with questions, after local police released information regarding a theft from back in May, on July 06, 2019.

On Monday, May 20 one man who was attempting to access a vehicle in the area was interrupted by the vehicle owner.

The thief produced a firearm and pointed it at the victim before hopping into a getaway truck.

When information on the attempted theft was released over Canada Day long weekend, residents were stumped on why they hadn't been informed earlier.

Sergeant Ryan Dlin with the High River RCMP detachment explains, there's always more to the back story than what the public sees.

"In that case, we tried to do a photo line up with the victim but he wasn't able to identify anybody based on the photo lineup, so we had to call in a sketch artist. We only have a certain number available in the province and had to wait for his availability."

He says often police have to make an informed decision before they can release any information to the public.

"If it's something where it's just an information release, or we're telling a good news story or we're just providing some more information then we'll release it right away, but in this case because we were waiting for the sketch artist that's why it took so long." Dlin explains "If it's something where we feel it's urgent and the community needs to know then we'll release it right away if we can. If we have enough information to release, if it won't interfere with the investigation or with the victim as sometimes the victim doesn't want to be identified."

Dlin says while it's important to keep community members aware of what's going on in town, police also have a responsibility to protect victims.

"I know some community members will get mad at us saying they would have liked to have known that right away, but there's a lot that we have to put into it before we do that, to make sure we're protecting the victim, that we have all of the necessary information and to make sure that we don't accidentally point fingers at the wrong person."