Inspector Gordon Sage recently returned from a three-month secondment to Alberta RCMP “K” Division, and said he learned quite a bit during his time working with the division, which oversees RCMP activities in Southern Alberta.
“It was great because I was able to see (the work) detachments from all of Southern Alberta do,” Airdrie’s head cop said. “I realized how well Airdrie is doing. That’s probably the biggest takeaway I got, is how good of shape we’re in and how well we’ve done over the last three years.”
Sage took on the role of assistant to the district officer on a temporary basis until a full-time replacement could be found.
Sage said he found his three-months with “K” Division to be extremely worthwhile.
“It was great to see the bigger picture of the organization across the province,” he said. “You’re able to see what works well and what needs to be improved. You can take all those learned things back to Airdrie and reinforce what’s working well already and tweak what little things could be improved.”
Sage said he doesn’t rule out a return to “K” Division on a more permanent basis in the not so distant future, although he calls Airdrie a “great place to work.”
He said Airdrie RCMP has benefitted from receiving excellent support from the City of Airdrie, which has provided funding to increase the number of RCMP members in the detachment.
“The City has done a wonderful job in making policing a priority,” he said. “We’re seeing a reduction (in crime) on the municipal side; not so much on the provincial side.
“The entire province is facing a crime trend upwards and we’re seeing a downwards trend. This is clearly due to the strategies we’ve put into place over the last three years, including getting more officers and putting them in the right areas. We’re working smarter.”
One of those strategies involves identifying problem neighbourhoods and areas within the city and targeting policing to those areas. Sage said the detachment has done “crime mapping,” which identifies where members should be focusing their efforts.
“We added a fourth watch because we had huge gaps where we only had two people working in the City of Airdrie during peak times,” he said. “There were only two people working around the 6 to 8 p.m. time.”
Under the new strategy, Sage said there are eight to nine members assigned to each watch and the detachment is able to do more proactive police work.
Part of the strategy has also been to improve the detachment’s human resources systems.
“I’ve been able to attract really talented people from across the province who want to come to Airdrie because it’s a great place to work,” he said. “We’ve been successful in motivating people and empowering them and engaging them to work the hardest and work for the community interest.”
