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County signs off on RCMP annual performance plan

Used as a measure of pro-active policing, the APPs set goals for local detachment areas
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Two local RCMP commanders accompanied by senior members of Eastern Alberta District RCMP attended the Athabasca County council meeting April 29 to discuss their goals for the year and answer questions. File

ATHABASCA - Two new detachment commanders, and two representatives from Eastern Alberta Division RCMP met with Athabasca County council April 29 to discuss concerns and sign off on the annual performance plan. 

Supt. Shane Ramteemal, Staff Sgt. Sarah Park, Sgt. Colin Folk and Cpl. Glenn Ellsworth attended the meeting, Folk as the new commander for the Athabasca detachment and Ellsworth as the new commander for the Boyle detachment, to answer any questions and address any concerns councillors had. 

“A couple of our APPs (Annual Performance Plans) this year for community relations, and our initiatives for developing community relations are bar walks, foot patrols in the high crime areas and police officer patrols in marked units in high crime areas,” Folk said about the Athabasca plan. 

He added it includes “meaningful interactions” with the public through traffic stops and talking to people with a goal of 600 interactions over the year. 

“Another APP we have is the crime reduction — focusing on crime reduction to reduce substance abuse in the county,” he said. “We're looking at writing two judicial authorizations per quarter, focusing specifically on the trafficking and use of controlled substances.” 

For the Boyle detachment, the meaningful interactions target is 420 and a focus on safety, specifically for off-highway vehicles (OHVs), by hosting an educational seminar in Wandering River as that has been a hot spot in the county for improper use of OHVs. 

“And after the initial seminar, we're going to look at conducting off-highway vehicle enforcement operations. So, there should be one every quarter up there,” said Folk.

Ramteemal asked if council had received the newly revamped Quarter 4 report, a four-to-five-page document detailing the previous year's APP conclusion. 

“We have received very little from the Athabasca detachment over the last few years and my answer, my short answer for you, would be no,” said reeve Larry Armfelt. “I'll just voice a little bit of disappointment here in the past ones that I've looked at, and we haven't had very many, but one of the objectives of your APP was crime reduction and I thought, ‘crime reduction, that's your job, that's not an objective.’”

Ramteemal said the new report would be sent to CAO Ryan Maier to distribute to council.

Coun. Travais Johnson asked if the new arrangement with the Sheriffs and Fish and Wildlife providing assistance to the RCMP was positive so far. 

“To my knowledge, two times where we've had to reach out to the Fish and Wildlife folks to help us and in both cases, by the time our members got to where they needed to be and the Fish and Wildlife folks got there, we kind of got there at the same time,” said Folk. “So, it hasn't been any newsworthy, so-to-speak, incidents, but we're definitely engaging.” 

He added the Sheriffs are piloting a project where they can arrest impaired drivers instead of having to hold the driver until RCMP can show up. 

“So yes, there's going to be improvements and help along the way. I think at this juncture it’s still pretty sparse but we'll eventually get there at some point where it's probably a little bit of a bigger help,” he said. 

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