ATHABASCA — It may seem like a no-brainer for law enforcement to want to reduce crime but at town halls, both virtual and in-person, across the country the types of crimes needing to be reduced vary by community.
In some places drug-related crimes may top the list, while in another community there might be more break-and-enters than the town the down the road, so it is important to engage with residents to take their pulse on what they feel is important in their community.
“Every year we have a list of topics that we like to cover off in what we call our annual performance plan,” said Staff Sgt. Mark Hall at a virtual town hall held March 3. “We had a couple areas that we were focused in on and that’s on top of the normal policing areas that we normally look at for calls of service.”
He said the town hall is an invaluable way to engage with citizens to give the RCMP feedback what they feel is important for the 15 RCMP members in Athabasca.
“I'm lucky enough to say that we are up to full strength for our staff right now, which is a rare thing when it comes to a lot of the detachments,” he said.
Noting a slide in his presentation listing the number of calls to service in a side-by-side comparison of 2020 and 2021 he noted decreases in many crime categories.
“I've seen some really good trends in a number of crimes actually being reported,” said Hall. “They're going down which is a positive thing. We have a 17 per cent decrease in persons crimes (and) a 23 per cent decrease in property crimes.”
He said it is due to the arduous work of the detachment members that the numbers are declining.
“We're seeing good positive things here and I can attest that the work the detachment members are doing is a big contributing factor to the fact that those rates are going down,” he said.
Hall added the number of collisions with animals has gone up though.
“That seems to be one of the biggest areas that this detachment sees with collisions,” said Hall. “So, fatalities and injury collisions are down — really we don't have a ton of those which is a positive thing — but unfortunately with animals, that's another area we do spend a lot of time on.”
Over a year the detachment can handle between 5,000 to 6,000 different calls Hall said, each of which takes time.
“We’ve done upwards of 26 search warrants for drugs in which it turns out there’s a considerable amount of meth in the area,” he said. “We've gotten stolen property back; we've gotten a lot of firearms out of people's hands that shouldn't be in the community.”
In the question-and-answer portion Hall said the cameras installed at the Highway 2 and Highway 55 junction by Citizens on Patrol have been disconnected but he would still like to see them utilized.
“'I’m looking at possibly re-installing them under this detachment here and getting those back up,” he said. “I think there were of benefit out there.”
He also said there are two dedicated RCMP members who are assigned to the Calling Lake area in an agreement with the MD of Opportunity.
“I have an additional two from the provincial side as well, that I have an author as well, so we have four that are designated to the MD and the Calling Lake area as well,” said Hall.
Town of Athabasca Coun. Dave Pacholok asked about the revolving door, as people are arrested seem to be back out on the streets in a short amount of time and if it frustrating for the officers.
“I know almost nobody feels it more than my officers when we arrest somebody who's consistently committing crimes in the area here and then we put them in front of a justice of the peace and then they just get released back in the community to recommit that stuff,” he said. “So, it's definitely the frustration that we do have to face here.”
He added it’s out of their control and due to the justice system.
“Our justice system is difficult to navigate,” said Hall. “Sometimes it doesn't seem that supportive in the community which is definitely why we need to as a police organization, as a community, to come together to figure out how we can best help these people and not just send them away.”
Hall said he plans to hold a town hall every three months when possible.
