BARRHEAD - Bob Dodds is not going anywhere.
And that should tell Barrhead residents how much he thinks of the community.
Last week, the former Barrhead RCMP detachment commander retired after more than 31 years on the force. Some 13 and a half of those were in Barrhead.
Nor is Dodds the only former member of the RCMP who chose to retire in Barrhead, noting the community has more than its share of ex-RCMP members.
"I often say one of the best ways to judge a community is to see how many retired RCMP members are here," he said. "You can look around Northern Alberta or anywhere for that matter, and you can't find any retired police officers; Barrhead is different."
Dodds added one of the last benefits long-term members of the RCMP receive upon their retirement is a relocation benefit.
"They will send you to anywhere in the country where you want to go, pay your real estate and legal fees, and pay for the move. We [and all the other retired Barrhead members] are passing up a real high-dollar benefit. If you ask me, that speaks volumes about this community."
Dodds came to Barrhead to take over the detachment commander position from Randy Hindy, who is one of the former RCMP members who have remained in the community after they retired.
"[The RCMP] called me in Slave Lake late in 2009. I was already a sergeant there, and they asked me if I wanted to take Barrhead, knowing that [Randy Hindy] was going to retire," he said.
After talking it over with his wife, Pam, the executive assistant to the County of Barrhead Chief Administrative Officer, they visited Barrhead.
"We were having lunch at the Prairie Chef, and I was looking out the window when this John Deere tractor went by, and I told my wife this was going to work out," he said, adding he is from the prairies and has a farming background.
The Dodds were officially on the ground in Barrhead by the summer of 2010, including his two young daughters, Maddy and Samantha, who were 12 and 10 at the time.
"They were very happy to come and fit right in and made a lot of good friends right away," he said, adding they both were heavily involved in Barrhead Composite High School's athletic programs, especially volleyball and basketball. "We settled in very nicely. It was an easy move for us."
Although Dodds said, he had always known that he wanted to join the force, saying that his family followed his father, who was also a long-time RCMP member, on his various postings, including Regina, which he considers home.
At the time, he said, it was tough to get into the RCMP training program, and as he did not like his chances, he opted to buy his time and joined the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) as a reservist in the early eighties while still in high school.
Dodds completed his basic training in the summer between Grade 11 and Grade 12 and, once he completed high school, he trained as a radio operator.
Dodds's career in the CAF lasted eleven years, during which he participated in two training exercises overseas in Germany and a six-month tour in Cyprus as part of the United Nations peacekeeping force.
"I was actually in Germany on an exercise in 1990 for their unification," he said. "When you are part of these big military exercises, you aren't on a base; you are out in public, driving through towns, setting up camps in public forests, and you get to interact with real people."
In 1992, Dodds saw his opportunity to join the RCMP, and after graduating from Depot. After a seven-and-a-half-month stint in Montreal to learn French, he was sent to his first posting in Golden, B.C, in 1993.
"There was a lot of exciting work there, with the [Trans Canada Highway], big collisions, avalanches and rescuing snowmobilers and hikers," he said, adding the detachment also did a lot of work clamping down on marijuana growhouses.
After eight years there, the RCMP sent Dodds to Fort Nelson, B.C., a northern community in oil country that also had a nearby First Nation community.
"There was a lot of money and a lot of cocaine," he said. "A lot of work involved crack houses."
After spending seven years, Dodds found himself on the move again, this time to Slave Lake, his last stop before Barrhead. Out of all his stops, Barrhead is the quietest by far.
"That is why sometimes I lose my patience with people who say Barrhead is so bad [for crime]," he said. "It is the safest, quietest, cleanest community we have lived in. It just has so much going for it."
As for the highlight of his career, he said it is being part of creating the Barrhead and Area Regional Crime Coalition (BARCC).
BARCC is a partnership between Woodlands County, the Town of Barrhead, the County of Barrhead, and the Barrhead RCMP and Rural Crime Watch.
It was formed in the spring of 2018, partly due to Peace River-Westlock MP Arnold Viersen's discussions with all parties to develop initiatives to combat rural crime.
In 2019, the program received the province's Minister's Awards for Municipal Excellence — Outstanding Achievement Award. A year later, BARCC received the Sustainability in Collaboration Award from the Alberta Municipalities (ABmunis).
Its most prominent feature is its alert system, which allows the RCMP and the municipalities involved to send information to signed-up users in the communities via telephone, text and e-mail.
"It was community-driven, and all I had to do was get on board and support it. It is a great tool to engage the community with, and I hope it will continue," Dodds said, adding he knows that acting Barrhead RCMP Detachment commander Cpl. Filipe Vicente is a large supporter of the program.
Before its creation, Dodds said there was a lot of disenchantment with the RCMP and law enforcement in general.
However, he said that BARCC, in combination with several detachment-led town hall sessions, the police were able to help turn public perception that the "police are doing nothing to that we are doing everything that we can."
"Through the town halls, the public learned what our limitations were, and BARCC gave the ability to have a voice and help out when they could," Dodds said.
Dodds said policing is different than when he first started his career. He and his police colleagues used to have a lot more job satisfaction, adding he understands why, in recent years, police forces across the country have had trouble recruiting members.
"In the mid-1990s, when I started, police could still put criminals in jail," he said. "Like it or not, it worked. If it doesn't change the criminal, it keeps them out of the community for a while. Two-year sentences were common for serious offences, and it went up from there."
Now, Dodds said, it is rare for someone to get actual jail time.
"So there isn't that same job satisfaction," he said.
But he said, on his run-up to his not-so-secret retirement, many people have expressed their thanks for his efforts and those of the police.
"It has been a bit of a refreshing reprise in that I managed to accomplish something in my time here, and I really appreciate that," Dodds said.
He added he also wanted to thank all those he worked with over the years and how helpful all the communities that the Barrhead RCMP Detachment police have been for his entire tenure.
"The town and county of Barrhead, Woodlands County, and the citizens of those communities have tremendously supported and sympathetic to our efforts," Dodds said. "The members dedicate a lot to their jobs, and being a police officer involves a lot of sacrifice. Over the years, I have learned that they appreciate it, which has meant a lot to me, and I want to thank them for that support."
