Airdrie RCMP will soon acquire two new police officers dedicated to fighting rural crime.
“It doesn’t sound like a lot, but these officers are highly-trained individuals and this is a general policing position, so there’s really nothing that they can’t do,” said Fraser Logan, media relations manager for Alberta RCMP.
Cochrane RCMP has also received funding for an additional officer.
The positions were created thanks to new provincial funding for Alberta RCMP. With the funding, RCMP will add 76 new police officers and 57 new civilian support positions across the province that Fraser said will, directly and indirectly, support frontline policing in rural areas of Alberta.
Additional frontline resources will allow for a better response to high-priority calls, Logan said, and ensure low-priority calls – which are non-life-threatening – are responded to as soon as possible.
Slow police response times are common for those living in rural communities. While Fraser did not comment on whether the new funding would shorten response times, he said it will add more members. Once RCMP has those new officers, it will determine how to deploy the resources.
A workload analysis – which accounts for several factors including travel time, volume of calls, types of crime in the area and the time required for investigations – will determine how the resources are allocated, he added.
Logan noted all RCMP detachments work together, so if a call is received from the edge of a detachment's boundary, it could go to another detachment if they have an officer nearby.
"If something happens in Strathmore, the Airdrie detachment and any of the surrounding detachments, if they’re able to...will go in and support,” he said.
Meanwhile, the civilian positions will be filled by “specialized individuals” with experience in areas like social work, Logan said, and will likely be placed in RCMP district offices.
The civilian support includes one position for court case management, which will reduce the time officers spend putting together court packages and speed up the process of getting files into the court system. Two other positions for the criminal operations strategic management services will support the RCMP in strategies focused on reducing rural crime.
This funding is the first wave of additional resources Alberta RCMP will receive, Logan said.
“We’re looking to get upwards of 500 extra positions in the next five years,” he said. “That breaks down to roughly 300 police officers and 200 civilian support positions.”
Kate F. Mackenzie, AirdrieToday.com
Follow me on Twitter @katefmack
