COLD LAKE – When compared to 2019, the total number of calls for service the Cold Lake RCMP responded to went up by 219 to 9,873 in 2020. That works out to roughly 156 criminal code files on average per RCMP member, which is well above the provincial average for comparable communities of 88 files.
“Our calls for service were up just a little bit from 2019,” Cold Lake RCMP Sgt. Ryan Howrish told city council during the Feb. 23 corporate priorities meeting. “There was more of a substantial jump last year, where we faced about a 900-call jump from 2018 to 2019. This year, we did close to 1,200 prisoners, which was kind of on par for what we usually do.”
The majority of files are generated in the city, followed by the eastern part of the MD of Bonnyville, Cold Lake First Nations, and the Elizabeth Métis Settlement, which makes up the detachment boundaries.
The top files that kept Cold Lake RCMP busy in 2020 were mischief calls, which landed at about 15 per cent of their files.
The next highest one was sitting at just over six per cent, which was calls relating to the Mental Health Act. Howrish describes the calls as a "huge drain" on the detachment.
“It’s extremely time-consuming, especially with the kind of calls that we have. The drug-related calls that seem to be associated with mental health as well, and I can say that, as police officers, we're not always equipped to deal with people in a mental health crisis,” he detailed. “It takes us a while and the nearest designated facility is in St. Paul. The travel to and from is what we have to do, especially when we apprehend someone under the Mental Health Act.”
The hard work by the local members is evident in their clearance numbers.
Person's crime committed in the city saw a 43 per cent clearance, 25 per cent for property crimes, and 42 per cent for criminal code other.
Just under 50 per cent of person crimes committed in communities outside the city, such as the MD, Cold Lake First Nations, and Elizabeth Métis Settlement, are being solved, while 21 per cent of property crimes and 52 per cent of other criminal code files are being solved.
The Lakeland Crime Reduction Unit (LCRU), which is based out of the Cold Lake detachment, also saw success in 2020. Since it was established on July 1, the unit saw a total of 133 arrests, 359 charges, and executed 160 arrest and search warrants.
The members of the LCRU aren’t like typical RCMP members.
“Every day, they figure out what they want to do, who they want to target like the prolific offenders or a project they might want to do depending on the area and calls,” explained Cold Lake Cpl. Shaun Doell. “They don’t actually respond to calls, which is the best part about them because they can act proactively. They can scope out the people, make sure they’re following curfews, catch them in the act a lot of the time. Where the general duty members, we’re more reactive.”
Another unit working hard in 2020 was the Police Dog Service (PDS) Unit. In all of the detachments Harp and his handler Cst. Jason Jaques work in, they had a total of 316 files, 108 captures, and were deployed for 912 hours.
Howrish described the PDS Unit as one of the "busiest dog units in the province."
“They’re leading the pack in Alberta, but Alberta is the busier detachment for dogs. That number likely puts them in the number one spot for Canada. Not that they’re competing... Jason is just working hard and so is Harp. They’re amazing,” he said, adding the longest trek the pair went on in search of a suspect was almost 16-kilometres.
“That was in horrible weather, with lots of snow through the bush and he’ll tell you they didn’t make it the whole 16-kilometres. At kilometre 13, he had to call in another dog that was waiting and essentially carried Harp out of the bush because he was done.”
The Cold Lake RCMP has two main focuses for their performance plan. Howrish described the crime reduction aspect as "super important" for them.
“It’s about being proactive and not just going to calls after a crime has happened. It’s finding those people who are responsible for all these crimes because what we’ve learned, especially in these last few years, is there’s a handful of people (that commit crimes). With the help of our crime reduction unit, if we’re on top of these people, it’s extremely successful.”
The other focus is community engagement, which was made difficult due to the pandemic.
“We usually try to do crime forums and stuff like that,” Howrish noted. “But, it's been difficult due to COVID-19."
There’s a total of 45 detachment personnel in Cold Lake. One staff sergeant, one sergeant, five corporals, 24 regular members, one PDS Unit, 10 administrators, and three victim services employees.
