The Altona Police Service has wrapped up a series of public information sessions geared towards seniors in the community. Members offered three seminars at the seniors housing facility, Gardens on Tenth, during the month of January.

The first get-together centred on drugs, in particular prescription drugs, and what users need to be aware of.

"As far driving when you are on prescription medication and also things like securing prescription medication in their suites," said Police Chief Perry Batchelor.

He describes one thing that participants were surprised to learn.

Batchelor added the afternoon wrapped up with some awareness on the impending legalization of marijuana. He said a number of the comments made were very interesting and full of concern.

"I think that it is going to be a major societal change and let's face it, these folks have been around for a while and they've seen a lot of things and they're concerned. They're concerned about the future of our youth, they're concerned about road safety. I think they're concerned about everything that someone who's taken some time to inform themselves, will be concerned about," he said.

Safe driving habits made up the theme for the second information session. A representative from Safety Services Manitoba presented the workshop.

"It was very well received and hopefully people will maintain that independence for a long, long time," said Batchelor.

And while this workshop didn't offer much in the way of surprises, Batchelor said bad driving habits do get developed over time and it's always good to review the do's and don'ts.

"Most people that are involved in collisions say 'I didn't even see that', or 'I don't know where they came from', and it's as simple as stopping, looking and looking again."

He said the instructor also focused on distracted driving and how it doesn't necessarily have something to do with using a phone or other hand-held device while driving.

"Perhaps your partner in the front seat is a distraction and there comes a point where you say, 'I need to really concentrate on what I'm doing right now to make sure I get from point A to point B safely, we'll have this discussion later,'."

He added a large part of the conversation also circled around mobility aides, or scooters, within the community and the safety aspects of operating such a vehicle.

Finally, fraud and scam awareness made up the third seminar.

Batchelor said that sadly his office continues to see people's generosity and sympathy get taken advantage of and unfortunately, losing out on thousands of dollars before realizing that they've been scammed.

"It should be fairly obvious that it's a scam. Sometimes people are dealing with different life issues, they're lonely or their depressed, and this person is paying attention to them and they don't want to lose that attention and they fall victim to someone that has only one thing in mind and that's getting into their bank account."

He added that these thieves are only as limited as their imagination and people have to be sceptical when the phone rings. "You've really got to make sure that you don't give out banking information, personal information, to just anyone."

Overall, Batchelor said the sessions were a good opportunity for the members of the Altona Police Service to connect with the community and share their knowledge.