BONNYVILLE – From speeders on MD of Bonnyville roadways to aggressive dogs and dumpster divers – the municipality’s Public Safety department does not lack for variety when it comes to the calls they log in the course of a year.
Director Luis Gandolfi provided MD council with the department’s annual report for 2023 last week, offering an insight into the type of work undertaken in the municipality with a focus on public safety and crime prevention.
Some of that crime prevention takes the form of regular patrols to assets throughout the municipality and last year included: 450 prevention patrols on the books for bin sites, where officers are checking for illegal dumping or people who are “dumpster-diving looking for assets”, 440 campground checks, 350 landfill checks, 175 patrols to town/community halls, 140 patrols of MD infrastructure, including grader shops and other assets, and 25 patrols to Kinosoo Ridge.
MD Public Safety also has partnerships in place with industry partners including CNRL, Baytex, Cenovus and Imperial Oil to patrol their well sites and service roads on a fee for service basis. A total of 1,033 patrols were undertaken to those industrial sites in 2023.
Close to 300 inspections of commercial vehicles were conducted by MD peace officers last year with 97 of those inspections resulting in 97 units being placed out of service pending repairs.
In his report, Gandolfi provided photos of some of the issues found on commercial vehicles travelling the MD.
“You can see we’ve got some loose materials; we’ve got blown tire, looks like some brake lines with some chaffing,” he said directing council’s attention to the photographs.
Over-weight vehicles which can damage MD roads and infrastructure accounted for 42 violations with $24,000 in fines handed out by peace officers. Additionally, Gandolfi reported 425 commercial safety regulation charges were laid.
With over 2,700 km of roads in the MD, enforcing safety on these roads saw peace officers issuing 1,770 tickets issued in 2023 along with 918 warnings, according to the annual report.
“The highest speed recorded last year was 214 km/h in a 100 km/h zone,” Gandolfi said.
Additionally, peace officers wrote up 59 bylaw enforcement tickets and 12 unsightly premises notices.
Gandolfi also provided council with an overview of each ward in the MD indicating the number of officer hours and visits those wards received through the course of 2023. Ward 1, located in the southeast portion of the MD, led the pack accounting for 1,966 hours and 7,366 visits.
Of the 676 calls for service received by peace officers in 2023, including in the MD and Glendon, the breakdown indicates: dog control/livestock (200), assistance rendered (98), rural crime prevention (44), joint force operations (30), illegal dumping of waste (27), community events (23), abandoned vehicles (15), noise/disturbance (15) and all other reported files (224).
“Our file count has been pretty steady, a couple of peaks and valleys, but pretty standard throughout the last several years.”
MD peace officers also enforce the Petty Trespass Act which deals with rural violators trespassing on vacant land. Nine such incidents were addressed in 2023.
Gandolfi said the department responded to 191 dog-related complaints last year and laid 57 charges under municipal bylaws. Thirty-one reports involved aggressive dogs attacking other dogs or people.
“So, we’ve got some aggressive dog complaints coming in,” he noted. There are 1,018 licensed dogs in the MD but “likely many more unlicensed.”
On the education front, the department’s resource officer delivered approximately 987 presentations to over 15,650 students in 23 area schools on topics from bicycle safety to drug awareness.
Enforcement priorities this month in the MD will focus on distracted driving and in March peace officers will be enforcing the wearing of seatbelts.
