There will continue to be more RCMP eyes on Foothills County.
Foothills County councillors voted unanimously to extend the Enhanced RCMP Policing agreement for 2019 at its public meeting on Jan. 16 in High River.
“I am very pleased with it,” Division 4 Coun. Suzanne Oel said. “I have heard on several occasions that it was the enhanced officer that got to the site first when there were a couple of B and Es in progress.
“I think it is a great idea, I am certainly in favour of it.”
Rural crime in the Foothills gained national attention when Edouard Maurice was charged with firearm offences while defending his home south of Okotoks in February.
However, the enhanced program was discussed by council in early February, before the Feb. 24 incident at the Maurices’ property. His charges were dropped in June.
The program was run as a pilot project in the county from October to December. It was a joint project with detachments in Okotoks, Turner Valley and High River.
“The program was designed [for RCMP] to be more visible in the rural communities, where sometimes we have not been able to reach out to because of workload and member shortages,” said Okotoks Sgt. Sukh Randhawa.
The program’s priorities were more visibility in the rural area, crime reduction because of the visibility as well as traffic safety, he said.
“Members were called out to do this enhanced policing shift in the rural communities,” Randhawa said.
“After the three months, the response we got from the community as well as the council, was there is more visibility in the rural area and the reduction of crime by visibility.”
He said the positive outcome was more than what was expected.
Council was presented with traffic violations statistics, but no concrete crime stats were presented at the Jan. 16 meeting.
However, Division 3 Coun. Delilah Miller said she had seen statistics from the Turner Valley detachment for that area.
“We had statistics from Sgt. [Dwayne] Helgeson and they have shown a drastic decrease,” said Miller, the County’s deputy reeve.
“I really think it is important we get them out (the enhanced program) again because right now we don’t have anybody out there.
“I’m hoping everybody will vote for this.”
Coun. Alan Alger said he has heard positive
feedback.
“From the public standpoint, everybody I talk to is noticing more patrolling on our rural roads, so I am all in favour,” he said.
The motion, put forward by Division 2 Councillor RD McHugh, was given first to third reading unanimously by council.
Enhanced policing does come with a cost.
The County has a 2019 draft budget with $150,000 earmarked for the project.
“I think that is more than adequate based on the three months so far,” said County Deputy CAO Ryan Payne in an interview after council’s meeting.
Payne said while the pilot contract has expired, it will begin again almost immediately, before Feb. 1.
RCMP will present official statistics concerning the enhanced policing program at a county council meeting in March.
