Foothills Patrol parked its 25th anniversary with one of its most challenging years to-date.
Besides handling the COVID-19 pandemic and enforcement, the department worked within High River through the shared services agreement between the Town and the County.
“We’re finding a large workload continues to happen with the Town, with these two officers,” said Darcy Beaudette, Foothills Patrol manager.
During the pandemic, officers were also given authority to enforce public health orders and ensure public compliance, he said.
“This was not an option for community peace officers, this was directed under the Provincial emergency response and under the police officer act, that this was mandatory and we must comply with enforcing this public health order,” said Beaudette.
Foothills Patrol had to develop COVID procedures as a result, he said, and officers continued to work throughout 2020 with the exception of March, when they were sent home for a few weeks when the shutdown began.
The re-entry was slow and officers continued to offer minimum services, but were not called in for COVID-19 issues very often, he said.
“We didn’t have many files to investigate,” said Beaudette. “A lot of it went through the health authority, health inspectors and the RCMP. We were kind of secondary to that type of enforcement.”
He said the Town of High River and Foothills County has relatively few COVID-related complaints overall, with some calls regarding gatherings or issues at public spaces like provincial parks.
There were not any violation tickets issued by Foothills officers, he said.
Services grew in 2020, with Foothills Patrol being granted authority to enforce traffic on public highways, he said.
“This gave us a great opportunity to provide a better service to our residents,” said Beaudette. “We now don’t have to ignore stuff that happens directly in front of us.”
While it’s still not the primary function of the patrol officers, traffic violations on main highways can be addressed rather than only on rural roads, he said.
“We’re proud of the fact we can do some of this traffic enforcement,” said Beaudette.
Aside from passenger vehicle enforcement, Foothills Patrol officers are also on the lookout for commercial vehicles to ensure they are following safety protocols and adhering to weight restrictions, he said.
During the spring, when the County has placed road restrictions or bans, Foothills Patrol activity is ramped up, he said.
“We’re doing our best to try to mitigate damage to our infrastructure,” said Beaudette. “That is one of our highest priorities, to try to reduce and extend the life of roads in the County.”
The number of tickets issued in 2020 was down from 2019, he said. There were 805 tickets issued for a total fine amount of $224,000, an amount that excludes mandatory court tickets, which are issued for serious offences like driving without insurance or with a suspended licence, or speeding more than 50km/h above the posted limit.
“On those, we don’t see what the fine amount is until it’s been concluded,” said Beaudette.
Of the tickets issued, he said the majority were speed-related with 21 clocked at more than 50 km/h over the speed limit, and two extreme cases – one at 182 km/h on Highway 540 and one at 180km/h in an 80km/h zone.
“Extreme speeds – we don’t like to see these, but this is something that does happen,” said Beaudette.
While there were only 18 bylaw-related tickets issued, Foothills Patrol handled 540 investigative files.
Darlene Roblin, emergency services manager, said that ratio is impressive.
“It shows the officers are doing good work getting compliance from our public and that the public is willing to engage and work with us, which is great,” said Roblin.
Beaudette said he’s proud of the service provided by Foothills Patrol, particularly in a difficult year that included dealing with people’s issues with underlying COVID fatigue and frustration.
“Our team is all pretty professional in dealing with people and articulating to people what our needs are to them,” he said.
