Several new officers are hitting the rural streets.
At the regular meeting of the County of Barrhead on Tuesday, May 17, Lac Ste. Anne community peace officers (CPO) Mark Elwood, Dallas Choma and several others were sworn in as county By-Law officers.
Their appointments will come into effect on June 1.
“I am the supervisor of enforcement services for Lac Ste. Anne County and have had the privilege of working for several different law enforcement agencies, along with various military and the RCMP, and I have about 21 years experience all told,” Elwood told council, adding besides Choma, himself, officers David White and Kirk Miers, there are two more CPO’s that are animal control.
“If anything you will be seeing a lot of David and Kirk as they will be sharing the shifts we have arranged to provide the County of Barrhead service through the agreement with Lac Ste. Anne,” he said.
The arrangement Elwood referred to was approved by the County of Barrhead on May 3, and similarly approved by Lac Ste. Anne on May 12, after an existing arrangement with the Town of Barrhead was terminated on May 9, 2015.
In the interim, Mayerthorpe provided peace officer services to the affected areas.
All staffing is to be overseen by Choma.
“I’ve structured it so that we don’t have ratepayers detecting a pattern and there will be coverage every day of the week, despite shift staggering,” Choma said, adding the new officers will be introducing themselves and explaining their presence in the county for anyone who has issue with being pulled over by them.
The first time a county resident is pulled over by one of the new CPO’s may come as a shock, especially when they see Lac Ste. Anne badges, deputy reeve Doug Drozd said, adding he was happy his division would be getting more enforcement.
“These guys have already spent a lot of time close to my division anyway, but I’m glad regardless to have access to these additional services,” he said.
County manager Mark Oberg explained the arrangement is for Lac Ste. Anne to provide 80 hours of CPO coverage each month, with 10-hr shifts varying throughout the week, but at press time complete authorization from the province was still pending.
