SARM says key would be to have all police officers and services working together for better enforcement in rural Sask.
Saskatchewan RCMP assistant commissioner Rhonda Blackmore said she wants to know why the province plans to establish a marshals service rather than provide the existing police force with needed resources.
Blackmore told the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities midterm convention last week the RCMP had asked the government for more money.
Instead, during the recent Throne Speech, the government announced the marshals service.
Policing and corrections minister Christine Tell last week said $20 million per year will be allocated for the new service, after it is set up, and she said about 70 “experienced” officers would focus on more complex issues rather than front line policing.
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She told reporters this would include rural crimes like trespassing and theft.
But Blackmore, and others, are wondering why the government wouldn’t bolster funding for the existing service in 113 detachments. The province spends $211 million per year on the RCMP.
“We’re established. We have buildings and vehicles and equipment and training for our members so we’re just looking for some answers,” she said during the SARM convention. “We did put a significant resource ask into the province earlier this year for everything from an increase in our detachment service assistants…right through to our sworn police officers.”
She said the request for more assistants is to help officers with extensive paperwork so that they can get back out on patrol rather than be stuck in the office.
Vacancies within detachments continue to be a problem as well.
Blackmore said while the throne speech did say there would be 16 positions added to the warrant enforcement and crime reduction teams, that doesn’t recognize the work being done by detachment officers.
She offered two recent examples.
One saw six firearms, cocaine, crystal meth and fentanyl taken off the street in a northern detachment.
Another took place in White Butte, around rural Regina, where a call for a welfare check on an elderly person found the person distraught due to a pet’s death.
“They found a shovel, dug a hole to help bury the pet, held a service with the individual to recognize the impact on that individual, contacted victim services so they had bereavement counselling,” Blackmore said.
Increased funding for frontline policing would allow excellent service to continue, she added.
SARM president Ray Orb said he was also surprised at the announcement of the marshals service. He said SARM lobbies federal and provincial governments for more RCMP funding.
“The idea of marshals, it is being used in Alberta (and) it’s something that we’re willing to look at,” he said. “We weren’t informed very much.”
He said the key would be to have all police officers and services working together for better enforcement in rural Saskatchewan.
Blackmore said there has been a significant increase in violent crime across the province, particularly in the north. It’s up about 25 percent.
Property crime spiked in about 2016, then dropped, and is now on the rise again.
“When we break down some of the more common crimes that we’re seeing in rural areas, 10 percent of our vehicle thefts occurred in rural areas,” she said, noting that those are reported thefts.
Most of these are light duty pick-up trucks. Fuel thefts are also increasing.
“So far in 2022, we’ve had 61 thefts reported from rural areas just from large tanks and jerry cans… and then an additional 12 from actual vehicles whether that be combines or tractors,” she said.
SARM has issued a call to action to encourage rural municipalities to establish rural crime watch districts and help prevent crime.
Blackmore said Saskatchewan covers 651,900 sq. kilometres and the RCMP polices 651,000 sq. km. of that. That is a challenge that will never go away.
“Even with additional resources you can’t put a police officer on every corner of every rural intersection in this province,” she said.
The opposition NDP said it is concerned that the new force will answer to the minister and compete with the RCMP for resources and people.
