By Erika Rolling

County of GP Policing

Regional Enforcement Services highlights in 2022 first quarter report

Jul 22, 2022 | 8:20 AM

A first quarter report by County Regional Enforcement Services from January to March this year was presented to the County of Grande Prairie council at its last meeting.

The Western Alberta District RCMP, Grande Prairie, and Rural RCMP Detachments representatives along with County Regional Enforcement Services were there to present the information.

Some highlights included:

• 385 total occurrences, down from 670 during the same reporting period in 2021
• 330 tickets issued, down from 688 during the same reporting period in 2021

Superintendent and Manager of Regional Enforcement Services, Stewart Rempel says this is good news.

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“What it means is the big offenses that we would normally encounter weren’t there.”

Rempel says usually in their reports there can be upwards of two pages of bigger, notable offenses, but there were only 14 in 2022’s first quarter.

“We had some 130km/h in 80 zones… there are still some shocking speeds, there’s still some impaired drivers we found and some large overloads.”

Rempel says last year fewer vehicles were on the road, but police were catching people going much faster.

“The vehicles that we did see…they were in a hurry and they were flying!”

Half of the notable enforcement highlights had drivers going at least 50 km/h over the posted speed limit, the fastest driver award went to one person that was doing 149 km/h in an 80 km/h zone.

The Regional Animal Pound also completed their renovations during the first quarter.

Rempel says “the Pound needed some groundwater controls put into place, that’s done. We built an extension onto it, we’ve fixed the ailing septic system, it’s been all moved and rebuilt and then we built a garage on the east end.”

The new garage extension acts as a barrier between Bandaged Paws and the Regional Animal Pound so Animal Control operations have a new space, away from where people come in to look at animals.

He says there have been some times when the Pound and Bandaged Paws have reached their capacity, with surrendering of pets.

“When people were at home, there was an absolute flock of people that suddenly wanted to adopt an animal and then you zoom ahead a year… a lot of those people were saying it’s no longer a good fit, they don’t want them and doesn’t fit their lifestyle.”

The Regional Animal Care Facility has been running since the closure of the SPCA, Rempel says “we allow people to bring in the pets they want to surrender and that’s part of the shelter operation and then we’re also attempting to adopt out those animals.”

It’s the 45th anniversary of Regional Enforcement Services in the County of Grande Prairie this year and Rempel says they are happy to be back out and engaging with the community again after the long hiatus.

“We weren’t able to do that for a very long time, so that is our key message, we want to get out in the community, be a visible presence. I know a few weeks ago, a couple of our folks went and had a big water fight in Wembley with the kids… that’s the stuff we wanna do!”

He says the Teepee Creek Stampede, Rio Grande Rodeo, and Grande Prairie Stompede were all “very safe and successful,” with Peace Officers and RCMP members attending all the events and no major incidents.