The Minister of Justice said its deployment model "shows how Alberta's police services can make the province safer and bring officers closer to the community."
Edmonton — The Government of Alberta has established Rural Areas 183} number of officers serving RCMP police services if state proceeds with plans to replace them with new state police.
On Tuesday, the United Conservative government said how such forces would be distributed across states and how they would differ from state to state. announced future “deployment” plans for How RCMP currently operates.
Provincial Justice Minister Tyler Shandro said the deployment model "shows how Alberta's police service can make the province safer and bring officers closer to the community." .
"This is a model that addresses the realities of policing in vast and remote spaces in many parts of our state," Shandro told reporters at a press conference. .
However, no final decision has yet been made on the establishment of a provincial police force, he warned, depending on whether Alberta's next government accepts the proposal.
The United Conservative Party is in the midst of a leadership race to succeed Jason Kenny as Prime Minister. Daniel Smith, the presumed frontrunner, has backed the idea, as has former Treasury Minister Travis Toos. Other future leaders, including former Wild Rose Party leader Brian Jean, former Transport Minister Rajan Sohni and former Women's Minister Leela Ahir, were cool with the idea.
In the later years of Rachel Notley's NDP government and in the early days of the UCP's rise to power, rural crime was a particular concern in Alberta. The NDP introduced a $10 million local crime strategy in 2018, and in 2020 Doug Schweitzer, then UCP's Minister of Justice, said Albertans "slept with an ax under their bed and slept in their beds." He had his firearms next to him because of the high crime rate in the countryside.
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Government has launched cost-cutting initiatives, high pitched the idea of state police as a strategy to address local crime rates, and as a way to gain independence from Ottawa.
" The RCMP mandate is too granular," Shandro said.
Proposition is controversial: Opposition New Democrats have panned the idea. Alberta Municipalities, an association representing 69 districts and municipalities, formally opposed the idea, saying it would increase municipal costs.
"This move has not been demonstrated to improve the level of police service in rural Alberta," said his 14-page report in his RMA on the proposal. said.
In the proposed model, the 113 RCMP detachments were reclassified from 65 to 85 Alberta Police Service (or Alberta Police Service), document nomenclature varied, Detachments of 10 to 80 police officers, plus a network of other detachments. The government said these changes would add 275 more frontline police officers and deploy 42 of the country's smallest detachments, with some of the smallest detachments now serving only a few. It said it was being handled by three police officers.
"The recommended deployment model relies on rebalancing resources from large centers and redistributing them to rural, remote and indigenous communities," the report said. says.
It also proposes a "service hub" model. In this model, large municipalities are staffed with 48 He to 192 police officers, with 20 to 30 detachments to support smaller detachments. Tracks for tactical units, dog units, etc.
"This will help reduce response time during large-scale incidents in rural and remote areas," said Shandro.
Three city hubs "function as regional headquarters" and house forensic services and other investigative work carried out by civilian staff. According to the government, it amounts to decentralizing resources to less populated areas of the state away from major urban centers. The
virtual force personnel will come from his RCMP officers who wish to remain in Alberta and will be drawn from other police and recruits. Shandro dodged reporters' questions about how Alberta could ensure that potential new troops would have officers from the RCMP.
NDP judicial commentator Irfan Sabir called the proposal a boondoggle.
"If what Albertans want is better policing, focused on addressing crime and its root causes, then the UCP is only going to set up a new police force. Hundreds of millions of dollars will be spent, and that's what we've heard in Calgary where Albertans are concerned about rising gun violence," Sabir said in a statement.
"Alberta can invest in better policing without blowing up the RCMP….No one asked for this, the UCP needs to listen."
Since coming to power in 2019, the National Conservative Party has the feasibility of an Ontario Police Department and a Alberta Police Service (APPS) similar to the Sûreté du Québec. have been researching This is an idea that has been explored elsewhere as well. Both Saskatchewan and British Columbia are considering ideas to replace the RCMP. In BC, an all-party committee proposed that the state create its own police force.
This proposal was included in his panel's report on the May 2020 Fair Deal. This is an inquiry convened to consider how Alberta can exercise autonomy over Ottawa. In late October 2021, a report from PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLC showed the financial implications of such a transition.
State Police cost him $759 million from $734 million a year, and over six years he found it would cost him $366 million in transition costs. The RCMP currently costs $672 million annually, with the Alberta government contributing $318 million, local governments $176 million, and the federal government $170 million.
If the state abandons her RCMP (a proposal hotly contested by the National Police Federation, the union representing the There will be many concrete changes. Local police are deployed in major cities such as , Edmonton, Calgary and Lethbridge.
“The needs of the Alberta police force are unique. there is,” the report said.
The government said further consultations would be held to determine the need for detachments of indigenous communities to be policed by local police.
" announced today the model to unique needs indigenous Tribe community," Shandro said. "The real benefit of this model is that it recognizes that different communities have different needs."
A poll conducted by the RCMP union found that 84% of Alberta We hope to keep RCMP as is or with some improvements. Still, Chandro said it was a long-running conversation and had good feedback from local authorities.
"This is a conversation Albertans have had since I was in high school, and I'm in my mid-40s now," Shandro said.
• Email: tdawson@postmedia. com | Twitter: tylerrdawson
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