Wednesday the Okotoks and District Chamber of Commerce welcomed Okotoks RCMP Staff Sgt. Jim Ross as their luncheon guest speaker.

Ross touched on crime rates in Okotoks as well as preventative measures the business community can take to avoid crime.

Andrew Gustafson, chamber president, says it was interesting to hear Ross talk about the small crime increase over the years in Okotoks.

"We have seen an increase but it's not an increase that's out of proportion to basic population growth so he's saying that we don't have a statistically valid increase in crime and we're very happy about that," he says. "The business community should be happy about that because it's very difficult to attract employees and what not into a community that has a reputation for high crime."

Gustafson says bringing in Ross was insightful to businesses for a number of reasons.

"Every business is vulnerable and there's steps businesses need to take to make sure they prevent as much crime as possible within their store, property crime, petty theft, as well as cyber crimes."

Cyber crime was a large area of interest with the current ransomeware attacks which hit Okotoks business Boothill Gallery earlier this month.

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