COLD LAKE – Last month, City of Cold Lake council voted to add an additional municipal RCMP position at the Cold Lake RCMP Detachment to help with staffing issues and to help address crime in the city.
Following the decision, three additional RCMP members for the Cold Lake detachment are expected to be recruited in the coming months.
Recruitment typically takes around 12-18 months to fill newly funded RCMP positions, according to information from the City of Cold Lake.
While funding for RCMP positions at detachments are split between the municipal, provincial, and federal governments, additional positions are funded by the municipality, given approval from the provincial government.
Mayor Craig Copeland said it costs roughly $200,000 in expenses for each RCMP member. And the City of Cold Lake, due to its population being above 15,000, has to pay 90 per cent of the policing costs.
There are currently 36 approved regular members and 11 support staff at the Cold Lake RCMP. The City funds 20 regular members and seven support staff.
Positions are also rarely filled at full capacity, and as per Cold Lake administration’s advice to City Council, approving another RCMP position will not significantly affect the City’s operational budget.
In a July 13 statement, Copeland said it is only fitting for the City to provide more resources, adding, “On a case-load basis, [the RCMP] are extremely busy.”
“We certainly appreciate that the Government of Alberta also saw the need to help with their staffing levels. Their job is stressful and essential to our community’s safety – it’s not an area you want to see understaffed,” said the mayor.
While the RCMP detachment is receiving additional sources, Copeland said adding more officers does not solve issues related. He believes it is the justice system that also must be addressed.
Copeland believes more judges are required, so cases “can be heard expediently, as well as laws that will deliver consequences for crimes that are committed.”
He told Lakeland This Week that when looking at the bigger picture, there is a lack of accountability for offenders. They are getting released “very easily,” and are given “extremely light sentences, if they are even getting a sentence.”
The justice system is not working, said Copeland, and it needs to be turned upside down. “We have people in our community that continuously commit crime, and the business community and residents are getting frustrated in Cold Lake right now with what’s going on.”
He added, “it’s a big issue and it’s going to take the provincial and the federal government to step forward and show leadership on this this issue.” Crime is the number one complaint by residents in Cold Lake, right now, he said, noting issues with vagrancy, theft, and the “lack of respect” for people’s properties.
Sherri Buckle, executive director of the Cold Lake Regional Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement that petty crime specifically has been an ongoing issue in the business community for some time.
“Some in the business community have taken matters into their own hands by hiring their own security and/or working with locked doors if it’s possible. These are costs that the businesses themselves must incur but they find necessary,” she said.
Addressing crime
Copeland said the City is not sitting on its hands when it comes to crime, referring to council’s approval of the additional RCMP position.
In addition, the City also introduced a curfew where people are not allowed to hang around in back alleys and in the downtown commercial area, from midnight to 6 a.m.
Municipal peace officers are also on 24-hour duty a day now in Cold Lake. “We have a Watchdog Security contract with the [Cold Lake Regional Chamber of Commerce,] where we gave the Chamber a grant close to $200,000 to hire a private firm to do downtown security,” said Copeland.
Last year, the City also provided the Cold Lake John Howard Society with $625,000 to help them establish a shelter program for homeless and unhoused people.
“So, I think the City has been very progressive. We’re taking down the tent camps as soon as we can find them. We are trying to be proactive, but we do not control the courthouse and the prison system. This is outside of the hands of municipalities and we’re all in this together.”
Copeland reiterated and emphasized the need for a major policy shift by the federal government to deal with crime. He also encourages people to go to the courthouse. To sit and watch the proceedings. “It’s disheartening. It’s all I can say.”
