The federal government and RCMP union are heading into another round of bargaining that are likely to further drive up costs. There is no indication of where they might land. This introduces significant risk and uncertainty into the City’s budget process.

In 2017, the RCMP’s budget was only $17,950,000. In the previous five years, it has gone up by approximately 25%, or $5,750,000. To put this increase into context: if it has been passed directly onto taxpayers, it would’ve been equivalent to a 5% tax increase.

Law enforcement using the response to resistance technique incidents has dropped fifty-three percent, and citizen complains about officers has also declined approximately sixty-five percent (Wing 2015). Statistics show that officers wearing body camera had been increasingly attentive than ever; this also reduces the number of civilians injured by officers wearing the body camera, and the injuries to themselves. Police officers should be required to wear body cameras while on duty because it formed trust between police and civilians, creates better performance by the officers and community, and provides proof against fabricated claims. Critics imply that wearing body cameras would invade police confidentiality because the cameras would have…

My biggest focus in attending was to advocate for a revision to the Police Funding Framework. As described above, it makes no sense to have City residents pay for their police while the province pays for police in most other municipalities (including urban County developments just outside of City limits).

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If you have any thoughts, questions, or concerns: I’d love to hear from you. My number is 780-402-4166 and my email is dbressey@cityofgp.com.Thanks for reading!-Dylan

However, Council recently approved the formation of a Police Advisory Committee. It is made up of mostly public members, and meets quarterly with both RCMP and City management. Its job is to represent the community to our police, and to have a role in shaping annual service plans. This Committee is a huge step forward. But we still have a lot of ground to make up in terms of providing civilian oversight for local policing.

The Eastlink Centre, Parks, Transit, Community Groups Funding, and Community Recreation Development, Community Social Development, and Revolution Place; or

Coordinated Care Campus: the police spend a huge amount of time responding to homelessness. Many of the calls that the RCMP respond to are not criminal in nature: they are just folks that need a positive place to be and a chance to get healthy. Council recently approved the Coordinated Care Campus to get people who are not engaging in criminal behaviour and who are committed to pursuing health into housing while being surrounded by both medical and social support. Getting these people off the street will significantly reduce police dispatches to non-criminal incidents. This will allow the RCMP to put far more focus on addressing behaviours that are criminal in nature.

GrandePrairie policetransition

Throughout 2019, the NDP-led provincial government undertook consultations about the Police Act. It hosted a variety of roundtable conversations with many different stakeholders (municipalities, police forces, police associations, legal professional groups, first nations bands, community organisations, academics, and others).

And many of theses crisis situations police respond to could been prevented. They don’t need to happen if proper mental health resources are made available to the people involved before they hit a breaking point.

Better integration and information technology. The RCMP operates on different dispatch and information sharing services than Enforcement Services, the Mobile Outreach Program, and other City departments. The RCMP is also slow to adopt and improve new information technologies, such as its online crime reporting portal. By improving integration with other services and IT, an MPS has potential to find efficiencies and better outcomes for its services.

In July of 2020, I made series of successful motions at Council. You can read my whole Notice of Motion, including background information, here.

GrandePrairieRCMP phone number

Since these motions were passed, Council has made significant progress on addressing mental health with non-RCMP resources. Two very significant changes:

I believe that forming a Municipal Police Service (MPS) is worth consideration. It could have some big benefits. However: it also carries some big risks and we do receive good service from the RCMP. I’m far from having my mind made up about the best way to deliver policing in Grande Prairie. But I think exploring what a Municipal Police Service might look like is a worthwhile exercise.Several of many potential benefits:

Good,bad,happy,violent all offices should use a body camera. A body camera can help you determine if the person or officers the person or officer was abusive in the situation. I feel that all officers should wear body cameras because it helps your situation " Body cameras are on a verge of changing policy as we know it. But along with the promise of more transparency and accountability comes tough policy choices ''. Its very small chances that a person could state that an officer is in the wrong.…

A look at RCMP salary increases. “Currently Anticipated” is what was agreed to by the federal government. “Previously Anticipated” is what the City assumed would happen when building its budget. Taken from this staff report presented on Aug 3, 2021.

A type of critique I often hear about our police: “that person is obviously a criminal- why aren’t they being arrested?” Or “I can see a bunch of property that was obviously stolen- why aren’t the police confiscating it?”

The RCMP is also a very large, bureaucratic organisation. At times, this has negative impact on local operations. This is especially noticeable when changes are needed or desired: they are often a very long time coming.

Cost certainty and input. At this point, we don’t have enough information to evaluate the cost of an MPS. There is some reason to believe it would be less expensive than the RCMP. My gut says it would likely be about the same or a little bit more than RCMP service. But under our current model, our community has no say into costs. Over the past five years, Council has had to navigate a $5,000,000 increase to the RCMP Budget without having any say into that increase and with no assurances that cost increases will enhance local services. When making financial decisions, having budget certainty and input are important. With an MPS, we’d have more accurate budget projections. We would also know that any increases were tied to local priorities.

This Committee is made up of 5 members of the public and 2 Councillors. It meets every two months with senior members of RCMP and Enforcement Services leadership to provide advice and collect information. It will also periodically provide advice to Council. You can see its Terms of Reference on page 14 of our Boards and Committees Bylaw.

Under this agreement, City Council gets to set the overall budget allocated toward local RCMP operations. The Mayor also gets input into annual detachment priorities. However, neither Council nor City staff have the authority to give direction to the RCMP or to set its policies and procedures. The City also gets no say in the Criminal Code or most other laws that the RCMP is tasked to enforce. Nor does the City run the court systems that are needed to prosecute cases.

One major change we need to consider in Grande Prairie: in the next few years, we have very large RCMP increases built into our budget. Some of these increases might be justified and important. But we should be weighing them carefully against other community investments.

On this page is more information about policing in Grande Prairie. Towards the bottom, I share the changes I’d like to see happen. As you read this, I hope you’ll give me your feedback: what do you think of our local policing? And how would you like to see it changed?

RCMP members recently won a court case which gave them the legal right to unionize. Their union then entered into collective bargaining with the federal government. Compared to other Canadian police forces, the RCMP’s salaries were low. This bargaining led to RCMP members receiving very significant salary increases going forward. This will have an ongoing impact on the City’s operational budget. It will also likely require the City to make a one-time contribution to backpay.

The province is responsible for healthcare and social services. With mental health and addictions taking up a huge amount of RCMP time, provincial programs have a huge impact on local policing.

Our criminal justice system also fails to have enough rehabilitative measures in place. Often people in prison or jail are dealing with addictions, mental health, or job readiness challenges. And our system doesn’t have the proper resources in place to help. Too often, people come out of incarceration without these issues resolved, and without proper resources and support to get and stay healthy, employed, and housed. This leads to them continuing to be cycled through our justice system, which isn’t good for them or the community and is also very expensive for tax payers.

Some people might say that the police officers use of body cameras violates their right of privacy. Often it is questioned about the people that get caught on camera as bystanders and the effect of them being shown in the courtrooms even if it’s not them they are focusing on. In particular, the most troubling aspect of recording will occur when camera-equipped officers are inside people 's homes, whenever police enter — including in instances of consensual entry in example, responding to a burglary call, voluntarily participating in an investigation, and such things as domestic violence calls. Some people might feel it is an abuse of privacy while others just see it as a security measure. The people have said that if the police officers wear body cameras anytime a police officer gets near them they know what to expect, and therefore it’s not an abuse of…

In 2019 and 2020, I took part in a number of provincially-hosted round table consultations regarding the Police Act. At that time, the Act had not seen major revision in over 30 years. A number of stakeholders (municipalities, police forces, police associations, first nations bands, community organisations, academics, legal professional associations, and more) were brought together to talk about potential changes. Every group that participated agreed that there are parts of the Act which are hampering the effectiveness of our police: it needed to be reformed.

Although many citizens may believe otherwise, it has been proven that the uses of police body cameras are beneficial to all aspects of law enforcement. In the article, “Scholar Warns Body Cams Used to Show Underrepresented in Worst Light,” freelance journalist and well renowned writer Jamaal Abdul-Alim argues that the use of police body cameras will result in the reduction of both complaints against officers and police force. Abdul-Alim supports his main argument when he presents a yearlong study on the effect police body cameras have on law enforcement that states, “Wearing BWC’s by police can reduce both officer use of force and subsequent complaints against officers” (8). Abdul-Alim then goes into the specifics when he provides the reader…

Grand Prairie policebreaking News

There has been a lot of talk over the last three years about policing and mental health. I don’t know if these conversations have done much to shift my thinking: I already saw huge problems with our current approaches. However, these conversations HAVE made me think there might be more political will now to make changes. As I expanded on above: the police are often called on to fill gaps in our mental health system. This doesn’t create good results for residents, and it is a very inefficient use of taxpayer dollars. It also isn’t what most of our police officers signed up to do.

Police are the City’s most expensive operational cost. They’re also one of the City’s most front-facing programs. According to the 2022 Citizen Satisfaction Survey, most residents are satisfied with local policing and feel safe in Grande Prairie. However, 29% expressed dissatisfaction with policing and 38% didn’t describe Grande Prairie as feeling safe and secure.

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Sep 16, 2024 — A St. Thomas man is facing impaired driving and weapons charges after a motorcyclist was found with a taser during a traffic stop.

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The province has recently made changes to this formula. By 2023, municipalities such as the County will need to pay for 30% of their general police services. This is a good change. But it will still mean that there is a huge disparity between County residents (who will have the province pay for most of their police) and City residents (who will need to pay the full cost of their police).

Council has not made any decisions about the future of local policing. However, it has seen enough merit in a potential Municipal Police Service (MPS) to continue conversation about a potential change in our police model. To enable these conversations, Council has commissioned a Transition Plan. This Plan will lay out the community engagement, regulatory requirements, financial needs, staffing details, technology, and other operational considerations needed to form an MPS.This Plan is being completed by an outside accounting firm that has significant experience and reputation in working on municipal and police budgets. This means that the financial projections within it will be very credible. However, it is not just looking at finances. All aspects of policing are being examined. As part of this work, significant public engagement is happening. You can take part here.Council will receive this Plan in the first quarter of 2023. At that time, Council could decide to take steps to move towards forming a Municipal Police Service, decide to shelve the Plan until other levels of government make significant changes to RCMP policing, or decide to shelve the Plan indefinitely. Personally: I don’t have a strong opinion on what should happen next. I’m watching public engagement and looking forward to reading the Transition Plan with a very open mind.

These people do very important work on behalf of our residents. They often work long and hard hours dealing with the most unpleasant situations in our community. They’re willing to put themselves into danger to make others safe. And many of them are far from home to serve Grande Prairie.

Another concern is how much of the video tapings will get released to the public if the police do film on private property. If the officers are filming on private property, then the next red flag people raise…

We’ve been very fortunate with the RCMP members and detachment commanders here in Grande Prairie: we’ve had a lot of good people in our community.

With that being said, concrete and strong restrictions need to be constructed to ensure the cameras cannot be manipulated. “Policies should require that an officer activate his or her camera when responding to a call for service or at the initiation of any other law enforcement or investigative encounter between a police officer and a member of the public” (Stanley). A cop should be reprimanded when he/she fails to wear a body camera to record. According to the article, “During the first year after the cams were introduced, the use of force by police officers reportedly declined 60% and complaints from citizens against law enforcement decreased by 88%” (Einvestigator).…

Develop experienced civilian governance in our local community. This will be critical if we ever decide to explore forming a municipal or regional police force

Body cameras for me personally is not an issue. I was pulled over by a police officer with a body camera recently. It happened at a McDonalds around 11’o clock at night in my hometown Reading, PA. As I was leaving the drive thru and making a left out of McDonalds I hear and see red and blue lights behind me. I pull over and shortly he comes over and introduces himself and his body camera.…

There is a big difference between the funding of police in the County and in the City. This is a big reason our residential property taxes are so far apart.

The Police Service Model Review was first presented to Council on September 26, 2022. You can read it here. It’s a long read, but the Executive Summary is a short and good high level summary.

Financial risk. An MPS is likely to create better cost certainty and control than the RCMP. However, it would leave the City on the hook for any large, unexpected costs that come up. This makes thorough planning crucial. Additionally, the City would take on much greater liability for incidents involving police. This would make strong civilian oversight, recruitment of great people, and excellent training critical to not just public safety but also financial control.

If senior levels of government make major changes to policing, Council may need to make some very big decisions on a very tight timeline. Having pre-work completed will help Council make and implement the best possible decisions.

In late 2022 the province made a number of promising amendments to the Police Act. You can read about them here. However, a lot of work still has to happen to implement these changes. In the meantime, there are aspects of Alberta policing that are very behind the times.

Direct administration to, in its 2021 budget recommendations, contrast any proposed increases to the RCMP budget alongside alternative investments of similar amounts that could be made into mental health care, addictions support, supportive housing, or preventative community development initiatives.

Police are often called to respond to failings in our mental health care system. This puts them into situations that they don’t always have the time, resources, and training to resolve appropriately. This isn’t good for the people our police interact with, nor for the RCMP members involved.

This raised a red flag in the eye of the public and they started asking questions and demanding answers. To solve this issue, police officers should be required to wear body cameras on duty when interacting with the public because it will show the behaviors of the police officers, collect any evidence that is needed to solve a case and it will protect the public against police brutality. Body worn cameras should be considered while on duty when interacting with the public because it will show the behaviors of both parties. Tony Farrar study is a perfect example. He is the chief of the police department…

To start off, police officers should be required to use body cameras because video footage will help supervision. According to the article, “The Right Body Camera Policy” in paragraph eight “Video footage will provide police superiors with a potent tool for reliable supervision, debriefing and disciplining, enabling them to condemn bad police work and commend the good.” In addition, The work that is…

To ease the minds of those that might think like that; the body cameras come equipped with a system that shows when or if the camera itself has been tampered with by setting off an alarm (Mateescua, A. 2016). This data brings to light that the officers have no decision making when it comes what the camera is recording. This process should help officers maintain orderly behavior no matter who they are having to deal with. Body worn cameras have gained public widespread support because the footage can exonerate officers of false accusations (Gass, 2015). He brings up the question as to whether a police officer should be aloud to review the footage before being making a report.…

Significantly increased local oversight. Right now, the RCMP does a good job of listening to Council and the Police Advisory Committee. But these local civilian bodies have little real authority over the RCMP: it could stop listening anytime it chooses to. If we formed an MPS, a local Police Commission would have full control over hiring the Chief of Police and over setting the Budget and Service Policies of our police service.

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I know that these can be very frustrating situations for our residents. And they are also very frustrating for our RCMP members. However, it’s important to recognize the roll of Charter rights in Canada.

I acknowledge the homeland of the many diverse First Nations and Métis people whose ancestors have walked this land since time immemorial. I am grateful to work, live and learn on the traditional territory of Treaty 8.

... body cam all day long. If on private property the owner does ... cameras for recording someone's private time. It is reasonable if we ...

Being able to answer the questions would make it easier to write a police body camera policy because it would identify and answer who, what, how and why for the policy. Once the legislature has the answers, it may be able to adopt a policy that is agreeable to all parties involved. In conclusion, adopting a body camera policy may help deter police violence and misconduct allegations that may occur while interacting with the public. The officers being recorded by the cameras should help with the performance their duties in a professional…

The City is primarily responsible for paying for local police. However, federal and provincial governments do make some contribution, too.

GrandePrairie Policecars

The provincial government is aggressively exploring the adoption of an Alberta Provincial Police (APP). If the province moves forward with an APP, it would be unlikely that the City would be able to continue accessing RCMP services. Council would have to decide whether it is best to contract with the APP or form a local police force.

I don’t have a strong opinion on whether the City should keep its RCMP contract or move to another model of policing. However, conversations like this are just a part of good governance. With something as important and expensive as policing, it is irresponsible to assume “the status quo is the best way forward.”

But a bigger problem with this arrangement: County neighbourhoods like Westpointe are closer to the RCMP station than City neighbourhoods like O’Brien. It makes absolutely no sense for a Westpointe resident to have their police paid for by the province, while an O’Brien resident has to pay for their police through municipal property taxes.

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The citizens of the United States have been debating whether the police should wear body cameras. Recently this debate has gotten a lot more prevalent after the unjust deaths of an unarmed teen in Ferguson, Missouri , and the death of Eric Garner in New York City. The United States death by police rate is by far higher than any other country, “ In 2011 police killed six people in Australia, two in England, six in Germany, and according to an FBI count, 404 in the United States.” (Stanley 2). Body cameras are small compact cameras that police would have to wear in order for law enforcement agencies to see what exactly occurred if there was a problem.…

GrandePrairie Policephone number

The province controls the Police Act, which lays out such things as the authority of police, how complaints are handled, and what input local communities have over policing.

The province has delegated significant responsibility to municipalities. But everything municipalities do needs to be enabled by provincial legislation and feed into provincial systems.

The City knew that this backpay was coming. So it budgeted accordingly. $3,800,000 has been set aside to pay it.There is nothing fundamentally wrong with the RCMP salary increases. There is no reason for RCMP members to be amongst the lowest paid police in Canada. It makes sense that they negotiated a raise. However: the City is not at the table for bargaining. It gets no say. The federal government has also proved incapable of giving accurate estimates about future costs. When negotiations started, municipalities were told to budget for 2.5% salary increases landing at a 15% increase over 5 years. Instead, the total increase landed at 22%. This left the City scrambling to find both increased operational funds going forward and increased capital funds to cover retro pay.

The police have a very high bar of evidence they need to have before someone can be arrested or property can be confiscated. Having un-provable suspicion often doesn’t allow police to act. Some would like this to change. However, it’s important to note: this would require significant re-vamping of federal law. Our local police cannot change the standards that are set upon them (nor can City Council).

Recruitment. There is a risk that recruiting enough quality officers could be challenging, especially if a newly formed Alberta Provincial Police is recruiting at the sametime. We would have to make sure that an MPS was creating a great culture and working to be attractive to new recruits. If an APP does move forward, there would also be benefit to getting going on recruiting local officers before provincial recruitment starts to phase up.

RCMP operations: The federal government operates municipal policing as a “turn key” service. It recruits, trains, deploys, equips, pays, and supervises all RCMP members. The City gets to decide how much of a total budget to allocate to the local detachment and it can provide input to RCMP leadership. However, it is ultimately the federal government making all decisions about how money is spent and how operations are carried out.

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In late 2022, the government passed amendments to the Police Act. You can read about them here. There are still a lot of unknowns in terms of new regulations and the implementation of these changes. But overall, I’m excited about a lot of the changes that were made.

The review then describes what an Alberta Provincial Police and a Municipal Police Service might look like. The most important part of the review: a table highlighting the potential strengths of RCMP, provincial, and municipal police services.

The amount the City pays for its RCMP service is mostly based on how many RCMP members are in our detachment. The City pays for the salary, benefits, training, and equipment costs of its members. Additionally, the City pays for other administrative and organisation support that is calculated based on the average cost of supporting members across Alberta.

Some think our criminal justice system is too lenient, some think it is too ready to punish those in need of rehabilitation. Some think we have too many police, some think we don’t have nearly enough. Some feel the police lack accountability, some want to see them given more freedom to act. Some want us to get Ottawa out of our policing by ending our RCMP contract, some say they would never trust a municipal or regional police force. Whatever their opinions are: almost everyone I talk to wants change.

The Mobile Outreach Program: there are many types of minor complaints that need to be addressed, but don’t need to be addressed by the RCMP. Examples include public intoxication, loitering, and encampments. Formerly, the RCMP were being dispatched to these complaints. This was a very expensive resource for taxpayers to deploy, and RCMP often did not have the time to properly respond. In late 2020, the Mobile Outreach Program to respond to these calls instead. It has responded to thousands of dispatches, and has received very positive feedback from citizens and businesses. It is leading to better outcomes while requiring less funding than RCMP response. (Important note: the City also maintains Police And Crises Teams made up of RCMP members and mental health nurses. These PACT teams continue to be deployed to severe mental health incidents where there is a significant safety risk)

Even if we land on retaining RCMP services, this Model Review is worthwhile. Two ways that it could benefit continued RCMP policing:

With all the police brutality claims now there is so much controversy over police officers wearing body cameras. Some people feel that the officers should wear the cameras so that there will be a video of everything happening and there will be proof of what is going on between the officers and the civilians. Other people do not want the cameras because it violates people’s privacy. This has been an ongoing debate for a while now. In this essay I want to show some of the benefits for the body cameras.…

Affirm that mental health challenges jeopardize the safety of some residents and decrease the viability of our community;

However, nationally, the RCMP has struggled with racism, sexual harassment, and accountability. It has severe and systemic problems that need to be fixed. And this has an impact on our community, especially in terms of public confidence in policing.

Council has completed a Police Model Review Study. The purpose of this study is to compare RCMP policing with other potential models (an Alberta Provincial Police, a Regional Police, and a City of Grande Prairie Police). With this information in hand, our community is equipped to have a productive conversation about what is the best way to deliver police services in Grande Prairie. You can read the review here.

GrandePrairie Policenon emergency

Throughout the past 10 years there has been many talks on whether the police should be required to wear body cameras. Throughout all the research and studies regarding these cameras, these have been many pros to body cams but there have also been cons and many challenges to implementing this system in police forces throughout the country. Many different police stations have done experiments with these cameras and have all shown very positive feedback. Regardless of the amount of work necessary to implement these cameras, it should be necessary for officers to wear these body cameras because they have the potential to save lives. To go along with that, police should be forced to wear these body cameras because they have the potential to save lives, give better representation than hearing a testimony, and make suspects less likely to run or attack an officer because everything they do is caught on camera.…

From a purely local perspective, the Police Model Review Study is worthwhile. However, it is also important because of conversations happening in provincial and federal governments.

I strongly believe that we need better civilian and public input into our local policing. I raised this with Council, which led to Council initiating a Police Advisory Committee. I was the initial Chair of this committee (it is now Chaired by a public member).

Our courts often lack enough prosecutors, modern processes, and other resources needed to work effectively. This leads to a tremendous amount of police time going into tasks such as filling out paperwork and waiting to testify. And often convictions are severely delayed (and sometimes put at risk) due to inadequate court resources.

Criminal Code and other laws and regulations: The federal government is responsible for the Criminal Code which determines what is a crime and is not a crime. Federal frameworks also determine how crimes are investigated, how arrests are made, and how cases are prosecuted.

Assert that more proactive and preventative approaches to mental health, addictions, and housing would improve our community while decreasing demands on costly police and emergency healthcare resources;

Policing is the City’s most expensive program. For many residents, it is also the most important program the City runs. That means that I’ve spent a lot of my time on Council working on policing issues. Here is some of what I’ve been up to:

RCMP GrandePrairienews today

Increased police experience. A huge issue we have with RCMP policing is recruitment and transfers out of our community. At the time of the Review being released, 27/44 constables had been in Grande Prairie for less than a year and half and our front-line patrol members had less than a year of service in the RCMP. Furthermore, 50% of supervisor positions were vacant, being filled by members in an acting role. These are troubling statistics: we need experienced police officers. Many municipal services do a better job of recruiting and retaining than the RCMP. We also don’t have these types of problems with our Fire Department. An MPS may be able to develop more experienced officers than we currently get through the RCMP.

When police do respond to criminal activity, their interventions have limited impact when not backed up by an effective court and prison system. And, too often, those systems fail due to lack of resources.

Reducing the scope of policing to focus on criminal and urgent safety matters (stop having police fill in for gaps in mental health and social services)

Acknowledge that, in Grande Prairie and across Alberta, police are often called to be the sole responders in situations where mental health professionals or other resources should be in place to support or replace police response;

Grand Prairie Policesalary

The Review contains a lot of great information. It includes a detailed overview of current policing in Grande Prairie including a description of all policing programs, an overview of how governance happens, and detailed financials. The Review also highlights both strengths and weaknesses of RCMP policing while providing recommendations to strengthen local RCMP service.

Because it is so important and so expensive, we need to have more community conversations about our police. Whether or not big change is needed, Grande Prairie would be well served by taking a more informed and proactive approach to its police service.

The City is limited in its ability to steer the local RCMP. However, Council has recently taken action to have more community input into policing. It is doing this by forming a Police Advisory Committee. This committee is made up of mostly public members. It exists to provide advice to the RCMP and Enforcement Services, and to give Council recommendations relating to policing. You can see more about what this Committee’s mandate on page 14 of the Boards and Committees Bylaw.

Civilian oversight is important to policing. It ensures accountability and guides operations to keep our police focused on community priorities. Traditionally, this oversight has been lacking in Grande Prairie.

The province runs the court and jail systems which most criminal cases go through. Municipalities do not get a direct say in how cases are prosecuted and what happens to someone who is incarcerated.

I have the privilege of serving on the Alberta Municipalities Board of Directors. One of the Board’s primary responsibilities is to advocate to government on behalf of Alberta cities, towns, villages, and summer villages. Since is is such a critical municipal service, we have spent a great deal of time working on policing. There have been a great number of conversations with both Ministers and senior staffers. Especial effort has been put into advocacy in regards to a potential Alberta Provincial Police. You can see a summary of those efforts here.

This arrangement makes absolutely no sense. Especially when you consider County “rur-ban” development just outside of City boundaries.

Following, I’m laying out some of the challenges I see with our policing model. But as I do, I want to be clear: these criticisms are not about RCMP Members. They are criticisms of the system our Members work in. I want to see those systems improved, not just for the sake of our residents, but also for the sake of our police officer who work within them.

As explained above, the province has a broken funding model for police. Under provincial legislation, City residents are responsible to fully fund their general policing through property taxes. Meanwhile, County residents have the majority of their general policing paid for from provincial coffers, significantly reducing their property tax bill.

The federal government doesn’t bill the City for the full cost of RCMP services. It covers 10% of the cost of RCMP members. However, this 10% is not meant to subsidize municipal operations. Instead, it is in recognition that RCMP members do some federal duties and can be called outside of Grande Prairie to serve other communities experiencing temporary events which require significant police presence.The federal government does not contribute to the significant civilian support given to RCMP members members.The provincial government also provides limited grants to go towards policing costs. These are equivalent to ~$1.4 million/year. I appreciate that we receive this contribution. However, it is worth highlighting that these grants are all either set amounts or based on per-capita formulas. They are not based on the actual costs of delivering police services. So these grants will do not grow as RCMP costs grow.

It makes complete sense that someone in La Glace would pay less for police than someone in the City: La Glace residents get less police service. However, those residents should still probably pay for the level of service they do receive.

Therefore, he is an expert in this field and has much experience dealing with cases regarding the consequences of police brutality due to the government not implementing body cameras. In addition, the author provides a reason to believe by uniquely expressing his viewpoint and boldly stating his opinion on the effect of body cameras on police officers and citizens. O’Mara states, “People act better when they know they're being watched -- or recorded. Cops act better, and the people they encounter on the street are more cooperative.” O’Mara references a studied commissioned by the Police Foundation in 2012 that displays statistical evidence proving few force incidents with body cameras.…

There is a small chance that the federal government will choose to transition out of municipal RCMP contracts. If it does this, the City will need to find an alternative way to deliver police service.

Most residents (and I’m one of them) have a great deal of respect and gratitude for our individual RCMP Members. However, most of us also see big changes that are needed to the framework these Members work within.

The provincial government is primarily responsible for policing in Alberta. It is up to the province to establish standards for policing and to ensure they are being met in every community.

Quality civilian oversight. A good police service requires very strong civilian oversight. If an MPS is formed and the accompanying Police Commission is weak, that would be bad for our community. If Grande Prairie moves forward with an MPS, serious effort needs to be put into recruiting and training the Commission. We should also pay Commissioners for their time to make sure that the position is attractive to strong candidates.

This is especially a problem for those awaiting trial: most rehabilitative services within our prison system aren’t available until after a conviction. Sometimes people are in prison waiting for years, just being warehoused with little to no rehabilitative programming offered. This is a huge opportunity for change which gets missed.

Part of this lack of civilian oversight is outside the City’s control. The nature of the Provincial Police Act and of the Province’s contract with the RCMP limit how much say local communities can have over their RCMP detachment.

This money just represents RCMP operational costs. It doesn’t include money spent on Enforcement Services, Mobile Outreach Programs, or the Public Security Units. It also doesn’t include capital costs.

Direct the Mayor to write to Premier Kenney and appropriate Ministers expressing the local effectiveness of Police And Crisis Team (PACT), various Supportive Housing projects, and other Provincial/City partnerships and asking to discuss further partnership opportunities to invest in mental health, addictions, and housing support; and,

The province contracts to the RCMP. Municipalities don’t directly acquire RCMP services. Instead, they receive RCMP service under a provincial contract. This provincial contract determines to what degree local communities have a say over their RCMP detachment.

This also isn’t good for taxpayers. Due to their specialized training and equipment, RCMP members are one of the most expensive ways to respond to social challenges.

The provincial Police Act requires cities and town of over 5000 people to pay the full costs of their own policing. At the same time, until recently, the Police Act made the province responsible for the cost of delivering general policing to other municipalities, including the County of Grande Prairie. This has created huge disparity.

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This might make sense when considering truly rural County residents. However, the County has many urban developments right outside City limits. Some of these developments are closer to the RCMP detachment than some City neighbourhoods. It makes no sense to have residents of County developments pay significantly less for their police services than City residents who live minutes or seconds away.

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However, the City has decided not to directly deliver this service. Instead, it has an agreement to have the RCMP provide policing. This is done under the terms of a contract the province has signed with the federal government.

The Review outlines the weaknesses and opportunities within RCMP policing. This work can be used to make a plan to increase local RCMP effectiveness.

Following is information about policing in Grande Prairie. At the end of this page, I also share my view of where we need to go in the future.

This is especially problematic when demographics are considered. According to Statistics Canada, an average County household makes 15% more than an average City household. And City households are 1.5 times as likely as County households to be single parent led, 2 times as likely to be low income, and 6 times as likely to be visible minorities. It makes no sense to have disadvantaged City residents pay for their own police, and then also pay provincial taxes to help pay for wealthy County households to be policed.

Police are the one community service that will respond on-scene and quickly to any crises situation, 24/7/365. This means that they often end up going on mental health calls not because they are the best type of professional to respond, but because they are the only professionals available.