While 2015 was a busy year for the Cold Lake RCMP Detachment, the local police force actually saw a drop in calls for service.
The operational file count for 2015 was just under 8,500, a decrease of 881 files from 2014. As a result there were also less prisoners held in Cold Lake Detachment cells, with slightly over 1,250 in 2015 compared to 1,340 the previous year.
“The stats are going down. Some statistics are still going up, but overall the trend is going down, which is good to see,” said Mayor Craig Copeland.
Cold Lake S/Sgt. Jeremie Landry was at city council on Feb. 23 to provide councillors with their 2015 year end report. Currently, the local RCMP has 36 personnel, with one position being surplus due to outgoing officers have trouble selling their homes and the replacements already arriving. The detachment is made up of one staff sergeant, one sergeant, four corporals, 23 constables and seven detachment clerks (five being municipal employees and two civil servants).
While the file count decreased, the number of charges laid per file increased in 2015. Within the City of Cold Lake, the amount of charges laid for each category of crime went up. The main types of crime continue to be traffic offences (2,179), crimes against property (1,326) and provincial statutes (1,273). The largest increase was in other criminal code offences, which jumped from 393 to 599 in 2015.
However, a main focus for the RCMP is drug-related crime coming into the city.
“Just (the morning of Feb. 23) during a traffic stop we seized six cell phones, 11 bags of cocaine, three bags of meth, and a loaded sawed-off shot gun,” Landry told council, adding that the safety had been removed from the gun and found under the seat.
In an effort to better fight drug crimes within Cold Lake, after joining the detachment in July 2015 one of Landry's first orders of business was to refocus the detachment's general investigation section to drug crimes. Since the switch was made in October 2015, Landry is pleased with the outcome.
“If we have the appropriate resources in place, I believe we'll be well prepared to combat drug crimes in the city. Our best defence is a dedicated drug section which is what we have in place now,” said Landry. “We have seen a lot of success in that area over the last three months.”
The main avenue for the RCMP to catch drugs and weapons coming into the city has been through traffic stops. As a result, Landry mentioned to council that going forward he would like to see an a dedicated municipal traffic officer to perform more traffic stops.
“The economy is going to rebound, and with a rebounding economy you're going to have more people coming to Cold Lake and presumably you're going to have more issues with drugs. I believe it will be a trend that will continue and will increase.”
“It's really great to see some of the changes that the staff sergeant has made in his short time already,” commended Copeland. “A lot of crimes solved in Cold Lake lately in terms of the drug trade, that's encouraging we've got a lot of boots on the ground doing great police work.”
Landry told council about his other long term vision – getting a police dog at the Cold Lake detachment. Right now, the closest police dog service is in St. Paul and takes an hour and 15 minutes to reach the city, if the officer and dog are on-duty when the call goes in. The performance of a police dog was seen recently when, on Feb. 19, the Cold Lake RCMP were called to an incident involving officers' vehicles.
RCMP were dispatched to the report of an attempted vehicle theft near Tri City Mall where the driver had fled in another stolen car, ramming a RCMP vehicle, tree and another parked vehicle in the process. A few hours later, officers were called to assist a city peace officer whose truck was stolen by the same two men. After a short pursuit, the men got out of the vehicle and ran.
St. Paul Police Dog Services was called to assist, and while they managed to successfully locate the suspects, the process was delayed due to the fact it took them an hour and a half to reach the scene.
“We are a busy detachment, we see a variety of break and enters, theft of vehicles and other calls for service where people often flee the scene. A police dog offers the specialized skill in the detection and locating of suspects, which I believe would be very beneficial for Cold Lake,” said Landry.
While the addition of a police dog isn't something residents should expect to see soon, Copeland said council will have it in consideration during next year's budget deliberations.
“Certainly the police dog has its value, I think that would be a great addition for Cold Lake. We'll look at the funding because that'll also come with a handler, so (we'll see) what that cost is.”
Cold Lake RCMP reach policing agreement with CLFN
Last year marked a big step in the relationship between the Cold Lake RCMP and Cold Lake First Nations (CLFN).
Prior to April 2014, the provincial and federal governments funded two constables to police Cold Lake First Nations. After Landry entered into discussions with the CLFN band chief and council, they committed in principle to funding those two positions again.
As of December, two Cold Lake RCMP members began working out of the CLFN administration office on a three-month trial.
“It's great to see that Cold Lake First Nations is working strongly with the staff sergeant on that and two officers, that's really going to help offset the cost of policing in our area,” said Copeland.
Along with the new addition of two members policing CLFN, there is one constable from the Cold Lake RCMP Detachment responsible for policing Elizabeth Métis Settlement.
“I look at this as a big success,” said Landry.
