Collaboration to improve policing

By Sharon McLeay Times Contributor

It is not often that you warrant a response from multiple RCMP detachments at once, and it wasn’t a major crime event or natural disaster; it was a positive collaborative policing meeting.
The goal is to target community priorities and improve communication between the service and community members.
Drumheller, Strathmore, Beiseker, Gleichen and Bassano RCMP senior representatives met Jan. 9 at Wheatland County council to discuss service challenges in their respective areas.
Wheatland County is a large area, serviced by four different RCMP detachments. Some of the issues discussed were communication with the public, Rural Crime Watch, response times and staffing concerns.
Councillor Amber Link indicated some of her constituents were hesitant to call in, and response time delays often discouraged people from calling officers to rural areas.
Officers responded by saying limited resources mean calls are strategically prioritized according to an officer’s availability, proximity to the call and severity of the call.
“We understand that they feel they are under siege and feel alone,” said Gleichen’s Operations NCO Sgt. Tyler Codling.
RCMP want to assure residents that officers are dispatched immediately for violent crimes against persons. Codling emphasized that even if officers are delayed, or follow up on an incident, the call provides intelligence and important data for the investigation; officers encouraged people to call and provide the details of their concern.
Beiseker detachment Sgt. Glen Demmon said officers from different detachments try to help each other out when needed. There are informal mutual aid agreements and the officers work closely with municipal peace officers as well.
Another concern was callers calling the wrong detachments for service. They said it helps if people can write their GPS location or county designation code by the phone and give it to the dispatcher at the time of the call. They want people to know the questions asked by the dispatcher are important to call response and establishing an official file. If a call comes in for another area officers said they try to pass calls to the correct area or respond if necessary.
For locations of detachments, view the boundary map at rcmp-grc.gc.ca/ab/images/map.pdf.
To estimate officer assignments, the RCMP use an assignment formula. However, it may not take into consideration minimal resource provision, large coverage areas, special events drawing in other populations and demands of an ailing justice system.
Statistics Canada states that generally there is one police officer allotted for 800 to 1,000 people in Canada. Strathmore has two supervisors and eight officers to cover four shifts. That is two officers per shift and a population coverage base of more than 30,000 people. Their ratio is about one officer for 1,500 people. Their service area includes 600 square miles of rural area, hamlets and villages, the Town of Strathmore and highway coverage.
One initiative by the RCMP is to allow detachments access to specialized investigative teams for bigger investigations for more serious crimes involving drugs or fatalities. They also have developed enhanced policing contracts through private service agreements (PSA) with the RCMP, which negotiates financing for a guaranteed portion of an officer’s time to be dedicated to municipal issues. In Strathmore, there is one position sponsored by Rocky View County, and Gleichen has a working agreement with Siksika Nation.
“We have noticed a huge difference getting members on the road (with enhanced policing),” said Strathmore RCMP Staff Sgt. Kevin O’Dwyer.
“Such efforts will continue to be coordinated through the contract management committee and will focus on ensuring meaningful consultation, enhanced standardized reporting, and consistent stewardship and interpretation/application of the PSAs. Using thorough client consultation, the RCMP will gauge the level of satisfaction with the administration and maintenance of the PSAs and will address issues identified,” stated Honourable Ralph Goodale, the federal government’s minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness.
“It provides communities with an effective, highly trained police service which can seamlessly investigate local priorities that may have linkages to provincial/territorial, national and international investigations. Having this pool of highly trained police officers from one end of the country to the other enables the RCMP to quickly and successfully supply a large contingent of resources to respond rapidly to frontline emergencies and critical incidents, as well as conduct investigations and carry out enforcement and prevention, community policing and crime reduction activities.”
However, some rural communities that don’t contribute to PSAs feel that service provision is not adequate.
“If we are going to invest our taxpayer money, we need to see something from that,” said Rockyford Mayor Darcy Burke, who attended the meeting. “We have to open the conversation. I see it as something we can work out.”
He said he would like to see more patrols in his area and a visible police presence.
“What it comes down to is bang for our buck,” said Standard Mayor Alan Larsen. “I agree with this, as long as we can guarantee to our residents that we are paying it for a reason. We need to have a meeting between facilitators to get things done sooner, or later. We have to figure this out.”
One debate states that paid policing constitutes a failure of the police system to provide service and may affect impartiality of the officers. Officers respond that their integrity and respect for the law follows through no matter who is paying the bill. Theorists indicate the move to paid policing reflects the need for an organizational re-evaluation of the entire system, which feeds back whether the federal government is supplying taxpayers with essential services. Others say paid policing can be effective for lesser duties, and provides additional revenue for cash-strapped and manpower poor public services, enabling officers to keep up with ever-expanding roles and expectations on their time.
The RCMP state their enhanced policing positions provide the same service level as officers paid fully by the province and they respond to the same type of calls.
RCMP members indicate data and paperwork documentation are required for investigations leading to convictions. It is often time sensitive, comprehensive and can be delayed by backlogs in outside services such as DNA analysis. Most consider it impacts their street time.
To deal with that, they have asked municipalities to sponsor the salaries of extra officers or watch clerks that provide administrative services.
Watch clerks help each shift provide better file reporting consistency and duty flexibility for members. The cost for an additional officer with equipment and benefits is $165,000 annually and a watch clerk is $65,000. Strathmore currently has two sponsored watch clerks, but O’Dwyer said it is not enough.
Wheatland County councillor Jason Wilson said he would rather see additional dedicated officers supplied for rural residents, as long as the funding and service is equitable between partners.
Wheatland council considered the discussion important and relayed the matter to the Feb. 6 council meeting.