Stanley Mission RCMP held a community engagement meeting on Nov. 15. (file photo/larongeNOW)

By Teena Monteleone

Stanley Mission RCMP engage community members

Nov 20, 2019 | 3:53 PM

In an effort to keep residents informed about ongoing issues and activities that police are involved in, RCMP officers in Stanley Mission held a community engagement meeting Friday night.

The semi-annual meetings have been taking place within the Lac La Ronge Indian Band since 2017. About 10 members of the community, including a band councillor and local Elder attended.

Cpl. Rick Van Hierden hosted the meeting which included topics like crime statistics, crime intervention methods and proper ways of communicating with police.

“Sometimes they’ll try to contact us through our personal Facebook page or they’ll leave messages on the phone even when they’re having an emergency. When they do that it’s a delayed response when receiving calls for service that way,” Van Hierden said.

He explained many people are afraid to speak to the RCMP Dispatch Centre in Regina because they want to stay anonymous. Van Hierden said language barriers prevent a small portion of the population from directly contacting police as well.

Riderville

Now for the Hard Part

Dec 10, 2025

Grey Cup!!!

Everything you wanted and more

Nov 21, 2025

open house

Surplus forecasted for 2026 La Ronge operating budget

Nov 17, 2025

“Often those people will relay their concerns to another community member who will report it to police on their behalf,” he said.

Year to date, five police officers who work in Stanley Mission responded to 2,600 calls for service – a number that exceeds the total population of the northern settlement. They’ve had 500 prisoners in custody since January 1.

“Out of the 2,600 calls that we received, 40 per cent had charges laid in connection to them,” Van Hierden said.

Among the calls for service, 70 were traffic related offences. There was 92 reports of impaired operation and 229 assault-related offences – more than half of which resulted in charges. There was one homicide and Van Hierden said 88 per cent of sexual assault reports (17 in total) were cleared by charge.

“We’re satisfied with those numbers but with victim and witness cooperation those numbers could greatly increase,” he said. “Sometimes victims and witnesses are very reluctant in fear of retaliation from suspects involved.”

Other topics brought up for discussion at the community engagement meeting had to do with crime intervention methods. Van Hierden said residents wanted to know how they deal with problem drug dealers and bootleggers. He spoke about an offender management program that has officers monitoring high risk offenders regularly to ensure they are obeying conditions of their release.

“As a result, some [offenders] have returned to incarceration and their orders have been terminated,” he said.

RCMP officers in Stanely Mission also refer regular clients who have alcohol addictions to appropriate agencies through the Alcohol Reduction and Pre-charge Alternative Measure program which also refers minor charges to alternative measure programs.

—

Teena.monteleone@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @TeenaMonteleone