An auxiliary RCMP officer in Olds is hoping community residents and former auxiliary officers will put pressure on the federal government to reinstate the program is it was.
John Lavoie is one of four auxiliary RCMP officers in the town of Olds. He says they're now in limbo due to changes to the auxiliary constable program.
Earlier this year, RCMP deputy commissioner Janice Armstrong sent out a memo outlining those changes, saying they were made to make auxiliary constables safer.
Those changes include:
Eliminating ride-alongs and firearms familiarization training.
Reviewing uniform options.
Creating a National Activity Matrix which will outline the duties of auxiliary constables
Creating a National Training Standard.
Updating national policy.
Officials say the changes follow a year-long safety review and were made in the wake of an incident in January 2014, when RCMP Const. David Wynn was fatally shot and auxiliary Const. David Bond was wounded when confronted by a suspect at a St. Albert casino.
Lavoie, a member of the Olds Fire Department for 12 years, joined the RCMP auxiliary constable program a couple of years ago.
He's frustrated, saying essentially that the program has been mothballed.
“We can only do public events, but no active police work,” Lavoie says.
“Before, we were fully active police officers. We are sworn-in regimental officers as an auxiliary status. So when we're working with a full-fledged officer, we still have full empowerment of the law. Where now, we're nothing.
“We wear brown khakis and a golf shirt. No vests, no nothing. No personal protective equipment, nothing.”
Lavoie says as a result of the changes, the RCMP loses four people who could help maintain order in the community.
“It's certainly taking bodies off the street,” he says. “So you think of New Year's or Halloween, we had a show of force. We had more than 12 officers on duty for Halloween public policing, walking the streets. We were walking the beat.”
He says other examples of public events that auxiliary constables have worked include Canada Day, rodeo events at the Olds Regional Exhibition and Olds Grizzlys Junior A hockey games.
“Now we have officers going to calls by themselves. Now we're down to a single man in a car, where with an auxiliary, it's two-man cars,” Lavoie says.
Lavoie says when he signed up, he was well aware that he could be put in harm's way. However, as a former firefighter, he has been involved in dangerous situations and is quite willing to undergo them to improve the safety of the community.
“As a public worker with the fire department and as a volunteer, I've been in way more situations than I ever have been with the RCMP,” he says.
“We understand that there is that potential out there. But it's no different than every time I don my fire uniform and get on a fire truck, or the mailman delivering mail, or even the young kid that's delivering flyers. You mitigate risk; you understand the potentials when you're out there.
“When delivering flyers you could be hit by a car, you could be bit by a dog. We understand that.”
Others critical of the changes to the program suggest they were made not so much for safety concerns but in order to shield the federal government from liability issues. That could not be confirmed.
A petition to federal Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Minister Ralph Goodale to reinstate the program has been set up. As of Friday, it had garnered 2,259 signatures.
“I've only got two years in, but what about some of the others? We have one auxiliary officer that has more than 30 years of volunteering. And just to be told that, ‘OK, well we're no longer going to have the program,'” Lavoie says.
“One of our auxiliaries works for the Town of Olds and he's got more than eight years in. So I mean, what happened to all his volunteer time? All the courses? His sacrifice that he's made for the cause?”
Olds RCMP commanding officer Staff Sgt. Joe Sangster was on vacation this past week and could not be reached for comment on this story.
Officials at K Division, the RCMP headquarters in Alberta, could not be reached for comment either.
"Now we have officers going to calls by themselves. Now we're down to a single man in a car, where with an auxiliary, it's two-man cars."JOHN LAVOIEAUXILIARY RCMP CONSTABLE
