The Innisfail Integrated Traffic Unit will be making Red Deer its new home. Starting last week, 13 members ó seven RCMP, five sheriffs and a public support staff member, started moving over to the old Red Deer Rural detachment on 55 Street near Lindsay Thurber High School.
Cpl. Al Nicholson said the decision to move was for more room.
"We have 13 people in a small space," he said of the one main office and two smaller offices the group was working from.
The integrated traffic unit started in 2010 and is one of five integrated units on a stretch of the QE II from Airdrie to Leduc. The group responds to driving complaints, collisions and other reports and works with the local detachments as well.
With the new location, Nicholson expects response time to the highway to be a few minutes longer.
"Innisfail is in a good location because we're right by the highway and Antler Hill is one of the problem areas. Ö In Red Deer you've got a lot more traffic."
He said the two smaller offices will remain open to the unit to use when members are in the Innisfail area and need a place to do some work.
The unit, which covers the area from the Didsbury overpass north to Red Deer, will keep its name as Innisfail.
Nicholson added that the RCMP station in town is undergoing renovations with the plan to eventually renovate the basement, meaning there could be a possibility of returning to Innisfail some day down the road.
He hopes to have everything moved in and operational in Red Deer for Feb. 1.
