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By Liam Verster

Rural Policing

Beaverlodge RCMP to benefit from provincial plan to bolster rural policing

Jul 6, 2020 | 2:17 PM

The Alberta government is investing in new front-line and civilian support positions in rural communities, and the Beaverlodge RCMP Detachment is one of the beneficiaries.

Beaverlodge will get one of each of the 76 new Mounties and 57 civilian support positions funded by the Province.

Sargeant Ash Browne with the Beaverlodge RCMP says with the newly funded position, the force will be composed of nine Constables, one Corporal, and himself.

He says that a Constable already employed by the Beaverlodge RCMP will be moved into the new position, and in order to fill a backfill positions, two new officers from the Depot in Regina will be hired on, and an experienced member of the Grande Prairie RCMP will be transferred to Beaverlodge and become the second enhanced member on the force.

The new members from the Depot will start on July 13 and the other on July 20. The member from Grande Prairie is expected to begin in late-August.

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Browne says the civilian support staff will essentially be tasked with administration duties.

“They do all of our Canadian Police Information Centre work, so our CPIC entries when somebody’s charged with an offence. They’ll take off those and do modifications if someone goes to court and as conditions change, they change those on the CPIC system so that all members have access to it that are working on the street, so to say.”

He adds that admin staff also work with the police reports and statements.

“We’ve got a pretty heavy police reporting system, called PROSE, and members input all of their investigative duties into it, all their statements. And so we, when we need to go to court, statements need to be transcribed, because of all persons crimes we do audio and/or video statements, so our admin staff help with transcribing statements.

“And with our WatchGuard, which is a system in all of our police vehicles that records every time the lights go on, members can initiate a recording session, and just kind of like you see on TV, if they’re recording a roadside stop or an incident they’re involved with, all that video gets put onto a USB which is in each vehicle, and then it all has to be pulled off and burned onto a disc, and then that goes to the courts as well .”

The support staff also deal with hiring contractors for maintenance and upkeep work around the detachment, ordering supplies, and dealing with day-to-day office work.

Browne says there’s a hiring process that needs to be followed before the new civilian support position is filled, and could not comment on how long that would take.

The province announced its plan in December, 2019, to spend $286-million on rural police forces over the next 5 years, but Browne could not say how much the Beaverlodge Detachment will be receiving to supply these new positions, or whether they would be completely funded by the province.

Browne adds that, in the past few months, there has been a decrease in the crime rate in Beaverlodge, which he attributes to having an enhanced member dedicated to working on crime reduction, focused patrols in hot spots in and around Beaverlodge, and the COVID-19 pandemic slowing down criminal activity.

“From January to May, 2020, versus (that same period of time in) 2019, we’ve seen a 24 per cent decrease in criminal code offences, during that time frame. When we talk selected property crime, we’ve seen a 33 per cent decrease in break and enters, we’ve seen a 50 per cent decrease in theft of motor vehicles, and we’ve seen a 25 per cent decrease in theft under $5,000.”

He adds that, though the crime rate is down right now, having a stronger and bigger force will allow for better response to future crimes and calls for service in Beaverlodge.