Saskatchewan's Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) is concerned about an increase in crime in the countryside.

The President of the Association, Roy Orb, is calling for more RCMP in rural Saskatchewan.

Orb says farmers are better equipped to monitor their yards, but they still need more police. "I know that some farmers have good surveillance equipment or techniques in their yard, and so they're able to deal with it that way. But as far as apprehending people that break in, that's a little bit more difficult because by the time the RCMP get there, those people are already gone." Orb told Discover Weyburn.

Orb says he's talked to the new RCMP commander in Saskatchewan about the problem.

The issue was highlighted last week, when a farmer reported being confronted by men with handguns near Fiske, west of Rosetown.

After that incident, some farmers began posting photos of guns in their machinery on social media. Orb doesn't think the issue is too widespread, but he does have concerns.

"I know farmers that do carry firearms in their machinery, from time to time on their own personal property." he said. "I think that's for a variety of reasons. But I think in that case, it's more of a deterrent. I think they're showing people, you know what, don't come here if you're looking for trouble. Just stay away."

Orb says its important that rural communities work out security concerns with the RCMP. "I hope that they can work with the RCMP to resolve those problems, because you certainly don't want individual ratepayers taking law into their own hands. I think it has to be an organized, kind of preventative scheme developed to mitigate some of the crime that's happening."

The SARM President has some other proposals to combat crime in rural Saskatchewan. One of those would involve reviving the rural Crimewatch, which fell into disuse over the years. "It's an RCMP program, but it needs volunteers, some local communities, to work together with the RCMP." he said. "We're actually looking to work with the RCMP on that one to see if we can't get that one back up to speed, because I think that program would be a really good fit to mitigate some of the problems."

Orb also suggests better use of community safety officers. "They're not trained so much for the kind of crime that the RCMP is dealing with, like the high level crime. But, they're dealing with traffic enforcement and things like that. And so often, they can work with the RCMP as far as surveillance and keeping an eye out for certain people and certain crimes that are going on."

The SARM President added that senior RCMP officials will be invited to share their views with delegates to SARM conferences which are held twice a year.