INNISFAIL – It was a long initiation for the town’s top cop.
But after first arriving in Innisfail a year ago to work under long reigning Innisfail RCMP detachment commander Staff Sgt. Chris Matechuk, Sgt. Ian Ihme has now been promoted to staff sergeant to lead the Innisfail detachment into the future.
The official call for Ihme to be named Innisfail RCMP detachment commander came from the RCMP Central Alberta District office on March 28.
When Matechuk officially retired last July after serving Innisfail for 10 years, Ihme became the interim detachment commander. But now “interim” has been removed and extra stripes added.
“I’m definitely excited. It's been a good change for me coming to Innisfail and it's a great place. It's a great office. It's a great community. I've love working here,” said the 43-year-old Ihme, a 21-year police veteran, whose last posting before Innisfail was a five-year stint in the Red Deer RCMP General Investigation Section. “After doing the commander job on an acting basis for the last seven months I definitely didn't want to have to give it up.”
With those seven months already under his belt leading the Innisfail detachment Ihme is already at work developing strategic policing priorities he will soon be presenting to town council; work that has been done in collaboration with the town’s Policing & Safe Community Committee.
“We've done our work with the policing committee to try and figure out what the priorities are for this coming year,” said Ihme. “The two things we always hear about is that people want to see more of the police. People want to see more community involvement.
“The detachment has done a pretty good job over the years collaborating with the different groups,” he added. “We've got good partnerships with victim services, the rural Crime Watch groups, Citizens on Patrol in Penhold, restorative justice, the fire department, and we’ve got lots of good tie-ins at the schools.
“We just want to continue to build on those,” said Ihme. “That's definitely going to be my focus for my time here; community involvement, visibility of the police, just getting out and interacting with citizens.”
As for his team of municipal police officers and civilian employees, along with the RCMP provincial members, coming to the detachment every working day with dedication and commitment, Ihme feels there’s a welcome relief for everyone that the decision of naming a new detachment commander has finally been made.
“Absolutely. Sometimes it is the devil you know versus the devil you don’t. For the most part they were happy with me, and they are happy that things will continue in the same direction that we have been going,” said Ihme. “It takes away some of that unknown; that change is always difficult, right?”
Ihme was officially congratulated by members of the Town of Innisfail council on April 10.
