Sask. techies win rural crime innovation challenge with pitch for app

Tech experts are collaborating with the Saskatchewan government to put out an app that can warn people when something is amiss with their assets — and allow them to track their property when it's stolen. 

On Monday, the provincial government announced the successful applicants for the Rural Crime Innovation Challenge, organized by Innovation Saskatchewan and the Ministry of Justice.

The winners proposed a technology that would allow people to keep an eye on their belongings while away from home.

Jeff Shirley, owner and principal consultant of Rivercity Technology Services Limited, said the technology would not only track the belongings but could tell when they are being moved or tampered with and immediately alert the appropriate people.

He and William Topping, the founder of Brand X Technologies, won the the Rural Crime Innovation Challenge. 

They are developing an an app that works with a GPS device to alert property owners about strange and unusual activity on their property. 

"You can put it on the back door of a cabin. You can put it on a trailer. You can put it on a Ski-Doo, a quad, a tractor, anything in the country," Shirley said.

Residents will be able to log and categorize the event. Law enforcement officers will then be notified if an activity is deemed suspicious and the GPS technology will allow the piece of property to be tracked. 

People would need to have at least one bar of service on their phones for it to work. However, if someone has downloaded the app they can use it manually to log suspicious events. 

• Policing concerns in rural Saskatchewan prompt meeting of ministers
• 'The days of not locking doors are gone': Sask. RCMP say after rural crime reports

"You can go out and say my cows are gone, or my bees got stolen, and you can flag it and log it and that will go into the database still and it won't cost you anything."

The project is a good example of Saskatchewan ideas, said Steven Bonk, the minister responsible for innovation. 

Bonk said the technology will help ​law enforcement officers fight illegal activity occurring in remote locations.

"We've had some concerns from people in Saskatchewan about the rural crime situation and we think that this is just another way, another arrow in our quiver, in the fight against rural crime." 

Shirley and Topping will participate in a 16-week residency program with the Ministry of Justice on their proposed solution.

The technology will be put out in a pilot project and eventually commercialized if the Ministry of Justice decides the prototype meets its needs. 

This initiative is part of the government's strategy on rural crime reduction announced in August 2017.