The ability of the police to fight crime in rural Manitoba is being expanded.

The Manitoba government is spending almost $2 million on the creation of RCMP crime reduction and enforcement teams throughout the province.

The investment comes on the heels of a pilot project the province and RCMP have been running in northern Manitoba where they have been operating a crime reduction team. That pilot has proven successful and will now be expanded into the rest of the province.

"Our government is taking action in response to concerns from rural Manitobans who no longer feel safe in their homes and communities,” said Justice Minister Cliff Cullen.

The funding will be used to create two new teams in the RCMP’s eastern and western districts, with five officers to be recruited for each location. Funding will also allow another four officers to be added to the D Division Enforcement Team, a centralized unit that targets criminal organizations and street gangs that traffic drugs and guns throughout the province.

Cullen noted timely and relevant analysis of crime data is essential to support front-line policing in the province. As part of this new investment with the RCMP, the province will also fund two new crime analyst positions, who will help identify criminal trends and hotspots to inform enforcement.

"This is an intelligence-led approach to policing. We're clearly focusing on serious, prolific offenders and drug dealers. The idea is to get these teams deployed in areas where there may be high incidents of crime and criminal activity."

The RCMP is Manitoba’s provincial police service of record. It serves about 580 communities and is responsible for policing over 90 percent of the land in the province, covering more than 465,000 square kilometres.