WESTLOCK — Westlock County is working with the Village of Clyde on sharing the county’s peace officer for bylaw enforcement in the village, where there currently isn’t a trained enforcer.
After a peace officer study recommended that the county’s peace officer spend 15 hours per month in the village, Rick McDonald, interim CAO with the county, says that work is ongoing to reach an agreement.
There are no details yet on what that agreement would look like—or how much time Darcy DeVos, the county’s peace officer would spend in the village.
When the study reached county at the June 23 meeting, McDonald pointed out that what TSI—the contractor that was in charge of the study—didn’t take into account was the administrative side of a peace officer’s duties.
“Your peace officer, he's not only out there, dealing with people, and dealing citations and so on. He has to come back and do the paperwork and that takes an inordinate amount of time,” he said later.
Although council had the discussion behind closed doors, McDonald confirmed that “they’re appreciating the study, but they’re relying on administration to handle whatever the study is saying.”
Another point that’s not raised in the study, however, is the setting of priorities for each municipality, and how the peace officer can go about meeting what’s required of him under different jurisdictions.
"We'll work that out, we haven't got there,” said McDonald.
In the county, DeVos’ priorities have to do with protection of people (i.e. tickets for speeding or unsafe loads, McDonald said) and protection of the infrastructure (tickets for overweight loads, for example).
"He's also been doing some pretty valuable work in some of our hamlets,” said McDonald.
“He's been doing evening work and weekends, which has really helped to keep some of the crime down, work with those communities, work with those individuals. He's had some experiences with the youth and it's been positive. That's a priority for him, that's why he spends his time on weekends patrolling in some of those subdivisions."
Currently, the county has a peace officer mutual aid agreement with the Town of Westlock, and although the town isn’t directly involved via an agreement with the village, their county connections have ramifications.
“The mutual aid does apply in the event that we need help in Clyde with this. If our guy is helping in Clyde and something comes up, he can call on them. … I have checked that out to (Simone Wiley,) the CAO from the town and she agreed that (they) would be there to help if needed."
