Council to discuss possible Downtown Patrol Program

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In October, council met with regional RCMP leadership to discuss the concerns of the community and ways the town might support police to implement effective change. The areas of interest discussed included increased, dedicated downtown patrols, lobbying for resources to alleviate RCMP’s need to support the courts, hospitals, and related transportation activities, and continued development of housing and similar projects that help attract and retain personnel.  

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Concerns were raised at that meeting, however, that an enhancing policing project was launched by the town in 2019 with a $1.2 million contact with the RCMP. In 2022, council voted to end the project after it didn’t yield the results council was hoping for. The municipality then attempted to recoup the money back, but eventually accepted a $223,000 settlement in 2024.  

“Council was interested in other successful initiatives from other jurisdictions. RCMP indicated that the various approaches to achieve enhanced patrols can have success,” the document noted.  

“However, it was acknowledged that all of the options rely on some level of RCMP support to respond to incidents, which may not be available given the current environment. Therefore, one of the more effective options may be to offer overtime to RCMP to conduct downtown patrols.” 

Advantages to that option includes no waiting for RCMP support to respond and arrive to the scene, the duties and expectations can be clearly communicated and observed by the community and council, the increased demand for seasonal patrols is more suited to an overtime system compared to full-time employment of community safety officers or bylaw officers, and there’s no need for training, human resources, or capital costs to implement internal security options. In addition, RCMP overtime is offered to other detachments or service areas, which may relieve reliance on local resources. 

Town administration cautioned that paying for RCMP overtime could be costly and difficult to sustain. How much the town would pay remains unclear because neither the RCMP nor the provincial government has indicated whether it would help fund the patrols.

The full agenda for Monday’s council meeting is available online.

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derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com