OLDS — Town council has named its policing priorities for 2022-23 with the first priority being crime reduction, the second community engagement and visibility and the third being domestic violence.
They’re slightly different from last year’s priorities, which were crime reduction initiative; community engagement; and police visibility and road safety, focusing on impaired driving.
Protective services director Justin Andrew introduced the priorities during a recent council meeting and explained why staff advised tweaking them a bit from last year’s list.
He said reducing crime continues to be a top priority. Community engagement and keeping police visible in the community were amalgamated into one priority because they’re seen to be similar.
Andrew said although the words “domestic violence” are in the third priority, the concern is broader than that.
“It’s all of those incidents and occurrences that involve issues and crimes that involve the household and private residences and persons crimes,” Andrew said.
He said the plan is to “give direction to the RCMP to work on solutions positively in the community to provide supports and opportunities to minimize these kinds of impacts on our citizens, and hopefully support them in new and effective ways."
Mayor Judy Dahl expressed support for the new priorities.
“To support, prevent and educate the public on methods of conflict resolution is very timely,” Dahl said.
Coun. Darren Wilson said although he supported the priorities, he also would have liked to have seen an emphasis on policing efficiency and effectiveness, given concerns over rising costs.
Andrew said administrative staff are aware of the need for that efficiency and effectiveness and it’s something he has discussed frequently with Staff Sgt. Warren Wright, the commanding officer of Olds RCMP.
“Operational effectiveness and advocacy for stretching our municipal dollar even further for that greater effect is absolutely (at the) forefront,” he said.
Wilson asked how policing priorities are determined. Andrew and Dahl said it’s a combination of council and groups like the Olds Policing Advisory Committee.
It was noted that due to COVID, changes brought about by last fall’s election and other things, Olds Policing Advisory Committee was unable to provide the sort of input it normally would. Coun. Heather Ryan, a committee member, said that should change by next year.
Wilson understood the need for input by council and groups like Olds Policing Advisory Committee, but said he’d like to see input on policing priorities from the general public as well.
Andrew said once policing priorities are established, Staff Sgt. Wright will draw up a plan to implement them and to evaluate progress in meeting those goals.
He also stressed that although priorities have been set, they can be changed if necessary.
