INNISFAIL – Red Deer County is moving ahead with its plan to add first-ever enhanced police resources to battle epidemic rural crime, but the move will not benefit the Innisfail RCMP detachment that is responsible to cover the lion’s share of the rural municipality.
"It helps the residents in Red Deer County that are within the Blackfalds (RCMP) jurisdiction area. With one position they have no capacity to assist us. It won’t assist our area because he will be within a different detachment area,” said Innisfail RCMP Staff Sgt. Chris Matechuk.
However, Jim Wood, the mayor of the county, said he has been assured the new enhanced RCMP officer, who will be joined at the Blackfalds detachment by a second one from Lacombe County, will be made available to other RCMP detachments, including Innisfail, for "specifically plainclothes investigations” on rural crime.
"We were told there would be good coordination between our two (enhanced) officers and the remainder of our detachments (including Innisfail),” said Wood. "We were told those two officers would be available to help all detachments within our region. I am not saying they will be sufficient or not but that was the intent.”
The news of the county’s move to acquire extra RCMP resources to battle rural crime was revealed publicly by Wood at Innisfail’s Rural Crime Town Hall meeting on Jan. 27. He later said the cost to the county would be about $150,000.
Wood said the rural crime issue remains a high priority for the municipality and county-wide discussions for other solutions are ongoing.
"The key message has to be that Red Deer County has to start somewhere with this process,” said Wood of the new enhanced RCMP program that will start in June. "At this time it is a download of services that the province is supposed to be paying for.”
In the meantime, policing for Red Deer County is currently handled by its seven-member community patrol officer team, which handles bylaws, traffic enforcement and infrastructure protection. Criminal Code issues are handled by police officers from five area RCMP detachments – Innisfail, Three Hills, Olds, Sylvan Lake and Blackfalds.
The Innisfail RCMP’s jurisdictional area in the county is by far the largest of the five detachments. The Innisfail detachment currently has 17 police officers, with 11 on municipal contract to provide services for the Town of Innisfail, while the remaining six are on provincial contract to police Red Deer County.
Matechuk said his detachment sent a proposal to Red Deer County about a year ago, followed by a second one late last year, for enhanced RCMP police services for the rural municipality.
"We have made requests for some assistance for support. They haven’t said no. We are hopeful in the future we may see some support, but there is no requirement for them to do so,” said Matechuk. "They have to answer to their taxpayers and they have to do what they feel is right.”
Wood said Red Deer County council has not had the opportunity yet to make any decisions on further RCMP requests, including the one from Innisfail. However, he said all requests would be carefully looked at.
"Proposals from other detachments will be considered by council and we are in the process right now of further evaluating the information necessary from the community, including all of our detachments,” said Wood. "We have worked very close with all of our detachments within our region, recognizing that each and every one of them have similar needs.”
Innisfail RCMP Staff Sgt. Chris Matechuk
"It helps the residents in Red Deer County that are within the Blackfalds (RCMP) jurisdiction area. With one position they have no capacity to assist us. It won't assist our area because he will be within a different detachment area."
