By Angela Brown

City commends provincial RCMP team coming to local detachment

Jun 26, 2018 | 5:00 PM

The City of North Battleford’s council was pleased with the RCMP’s plans to station several permanent provincial officers at the local detachment.

The Battlefords RCMP will have five provincial RCMP officers starting at the detachment this fall as part of the Crime Reduction Team initiative.

“It’s more resources for policing within the region,” Mayor Ryan Bater said after council’s meeting Monday. “This isn’t adding to the complement of city RCMP; this is a provincial unit. They are just going to be located here. Any resources we can get to address crime in this part of the province is welcome.

Bater said having the unit here is a result of the work of the Crime Reduction Committee undertaken in the province.

“I would really commend the province, not just for the investment, but for listening,” the mayor said. “I think this is an example of the provincial government making an investment based on what they heard from throughout the province.”

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The provincial RCMP officers will be focusing on strategic policing as part of the RCMP’s crime reduction strategy. On Tuesday, North Battleford RCMP Insp. John Sutherland told battlefordsNOW that in addition to the five RCMP officers, there will also be two new civilian positions, one support staff member and one analyst, who will work out of the N.B. detachment. A separate team will be established in Prince Albert, he said, and the teams will cover the northern and central part of the province.

“These are provincial resources, but they will work across the province, including the City of North Battleford,” Sutherland said. “Their aim is youth education and predictive policing and analytics to educate people we identify as prolific offenders.”

Sutherland said their tasks could include conducting curfew checks, identifying hot spots for crime, looking for trending crimes, and identifying the individuals responsible. He said the officers will also be investigating criminals and where they are committing crimes before they become chronic offenders.

The inspector said police will concentrate on making sure they have a “high-visibility presence in dealing with the crimes, hopefully, before they happen.”

angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW