RCMP proposal voted for

Times Reporter 

 

Town council members had their first debate over an issue and idea brought forward by Staff Sgt. Kevin Reilly. In the end council voted for the initiative with four members in favour and three against the idea. 

Reilly sent a letter to town council members for the regular Nov. 27 meeting regarding ongoing traffic enforcement and a possible short term solution. 

“Efforts to increase traffic patrols and enforcement has not been as effective as it could be due to existing resources being required to attend a higher priority of calls for service within the Town of Strathmore,” said Reilly in the letter. 

He further explained that the Strathmore detachment is generally ranked as one of the busiest detachments in Southern Alberta in criminal code investigations. Every effort has been made to make more and targeted traffic patrols, but prioritization of calls for service prevents the ability to have the required focus and resources dedicated to a consistent traffic enforcement program.

“I would like to propose an alternative traffic plan; current enhanced traffic programs,” stated Reilly in the letter. 

“A number of communities utilize enhanced or extra policing programs to address specific or targeted concerns.”

A local example, said Reilly, is the Town of Chestermere, which utilizes a yearly budget of $125,000 to pay off-duty RCMP members to perform extra traffic enforcement. 

The initial reason for the idea is, of course, making the roads safer for everyone, but secondly the program could also potentially become self-funded through the specific traffic penalties collected as a result of the extra enforcement. 

Reilly asked for the town to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Strathmore RCMP detachment for a period of six months to provide a similar traffic enhancement program in the community. The budget requested is for $4,000 per month, totaling $24,000, for two weekly five hour shifts plus required supervisory hours to implement the program.

Once in place a detachment commander will be put in place to plan and consult with the town about where the best enforcement areas would be, and assess how the program is working. 

Councillor Bob Sobol was immediately in favour of the idea, stating that traffic enforcement can be dangerous and is best left up to the RCMP. 

“The time for education has passed in regards to these and other traffic issues. We have at our disposal an opportunity to be proactive and form a new partnership with the RCMP, one that would allow them to devote unfettered and dedicated hours to focus on our traffic concerns,” said Sobol.

“Although this program has worked well in other areas and has proven to be financially viable I would still recommend that we move forward on the enhanced traffic enforcement program for a limited period.”

Councillor John Rempel was not so in favour of entering into an MOU with the RCMP. He had a number of questions for Reilly who was unable to attend the meeting, and said that another option available is the Alberta Sheriffs Department. It would be revenue neutral, said Rempel, and would allow the officers in town to focus more on their regular duties. He feels council needs to be more direct with the RCMP to do patrolling in town. Strathmore currently has 16 RCMP members. 

“We have more than enough officers to fill the demands that are set out in our contract I believe,” said Rempel. 

He states that there are always members off on stress leave, which leaves the detachment shorthanded for enforcement. It also means the members working are even busier, which could create more stress resulting in more members taking time off. 

Sobol had mentioned how this initiative is not a cash cow, but Rempel argues that it is because it is supposed to be revenue neutral, which means officers are obligated to write a certain number of tickets to make it so. 

Rempel feels the sheriffs can do traffic enforcement with less pressure and likely be just as effective. He requested that the information be brought forward to the next council meeting so that Reilly could be on hand to answer questions. 

Councillor Rocky Blokland was concerned about the requested budget amounts and said he would like to see the town Peace Officers doing traffic enforcement: that way the town could use 40 hours a week of its own resources.

“These people (Peace Officers) are not armed and I am really concerned about unarmed Peace Officers doing traffic stops especially on Hwy 1, this is not a game, this is serious stuff and some of these people that they’re stopping have got guns. I would hope that we would look at the safety issue and leave this to the right people that have the equipment to be doing stops,” said Sobol

“Every day that we postpone this and play around with it … it’s not going to change the fact that we are short of traffic enforcement in this town and that’s all this program is, it’s to add traffic enforcement on a limited six month basis.”

“I believe we owe it to our constituents, to our taxpayers that we follow through with due diligence, we can’t just vote and award something like this to the RCMP, we have the Sheriff department to consider as well, they are a provincial police force and they do carry side arms,” argued Rempel.

“I’m not against the RCMP doing this, what I am against is trying to get this ramrodded through in one evening here with very short notice when there are alternatives to this and we should have the option of doing that.”

The motion to defer the decision to the next council meeting was defeated with Councillors Brad Walls, John Rempel and Rocky Blokland in favour of postponing. Sobol made a motion to enter into the agreement and have an MOU drafted. 

The three men in favour of postponing voted against the motion with the remaining four council members voting in favour.