Policing society wants input from councils on its makeup, mandate

Fewer representatives have been coming out to Olds and District Community Policing Advisory Society (ODCPAS) meetings.

The society wants to fix that problem.

So it's asking Olds, Bowden and Mountain View County councils to tell them how the society could best address their concerns.

The society made that decision during its June 28 meeting in Olds town council chambers.

“We asked the municipalities of Bowden, Olds and Mountain View County to go back to their councils and ask what is it that they want from this committee,” secretary-treasurer Judy Schlichenmayer says. “So we're essentially on hold till we get that feedback.”

She says the society doesn't expect an answer from the various councils until some time in September, due to summer holidays.

During Tuesday night's meeting, the committee received a report from the Town of Olds on how the committee could be revamped to ensure it's meeting council's needs, but Schlichenmayer says society members weren't satisfied.

“They felt that they needed more input from the councils,” she says. “It was a really good report, but I guess, going through the report, it brought up more questions (than it answered).”

She says over the years, the number of people coming out to ODCPAS meetings has dwindled. That's one issue the society wants addressed. It wants to know what can be done to reverse that problem.

“At one time pretty much a standard 15 (people) showed up to every meeting. Now we're down to eight to 10,” she says. “We were just looking for better participation.

“With reduced participation we're not sure if we're getting the whole story.”

Schlichenmayer says today's hectic life seems to be an issue.

“A lot of it has to do with timing and workload and all kinds of issues,” she says.

Schlichenmayer also notes the committee's mandate is to represent a huge area, and that's an issue in itself.

“The Olds and District Community Policing Advisory Society involves the Olds detachment, and that includes the counties of Mountain View, Kneehill, Red Deer -- three different counties,” she says. “So that's the other issue: the area is bigger than the representation, necessarily.”

Overall, Schlichenmayer sees the ODCPAS request as a positive situation.

“The whole thing is, they're asking the question as a council, ‘what do we want from this committee,' which is really good for the committee, because then we can focus on the right stuff. So that was encouraging.”

Elections were supposed to be held during Tuesday night's meeting, but the society chose to keep its current executive until its purpose and makeup has been decided.

So the executive continues to be Joan O'Reilly as chair, Bowden town councillor Wayne Milaney as vice-chair, Schlichenmayer as secretary-treasurer, and Fred Bay as member at large.