La Ronge RCMP Acting Staff Sgt. Josh Hallett. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

By Derek Cornet

Year In Review

La Ronge RCMP calls for service up in 2019

Dec 23, 2019 | 12:00 PM

Residents of the tri-communities can expect to see police officers patrolling the roads watching out for impaired drivers during the holidays.

“One of our priorities is being on the road increasing road safety,” Acting Staff Sgt. Josh Hallett said. “There were some check stops we did in the last week or so in the community just to make sure our impaired driving was kept as low as we possibly could. We’re going to continue to do that throughout Christmas and New Year’s as well.”

Hallett believes 2019 was a success for the La Ronge RCMP detachment, noting it was quite busy but they were able to achieve a number of goals. There are currently 26 officers at the La Ronge detachment and, in 2019, there were approximately 8,400 calls for service. In 2018, there were about 8,000 calls for service.

There are number of strategies the RCMP used last year in an attempt to keep crime rates down or solve crimes that occurred. For instance, Hallett said officers conducted more than 2,500 curfew checks on the tri-community’s most prolific offenders. The General Investigation Services unit was also boosted from one member to three.

“We were able to have some good success this year just in relation to search warrants for drugs and guns,” Hallett said. “We had nine successful search warrants this year that yielded drugs and guns in the community, so we were quite happy with those results.”

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Officers also continue to work proactively with at-risk youth in the tri-communities. They do so by working closely with Hub and making referrals to them or other agencies like child and family services or victim services.

In 2019, La Ronge RCMP also introduced a cultural awareness component for new members. This year, Hallett mentioned the detachment received nine officers straight out of training and many of them had never been to northern Saskatchewan before.

“We partnered with the Lac La Ronge Indian Band (LLRIB) and they set us up with an elder in the community,” he said. “All of our new members are required to come and spend some time with that elder, who gives them a bit of history of the LLRIB and talks to them about what’s important in the Indigenous culture.”

Next year, Hallett would like to see more success with members in the GIS unit as they work to reduce gang activity and other crimes. He also thinks the three additional officers hired by the Town of La Ronge will be beneficial as there will be increased patrols in the municipality, as well as more chances for officers to work with children in schools.

Hallett also hopes residents of the tri-communities stay safe during the holidays.

“I do want to wish everyone in the tri-communities a Merry Christmas, and happy and safe holiday season,” he said.

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derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno