Lac La Biche enforcement agencies will hold a Virtual Town Hall on Tuesday to hear from residents about community policing
An online town hall to discuss community policing will take place for Lac La Biche County residents on Tuesday, February 15.
Lac La Biche County Enforcement Services and the local RCMP detachment will start the virtual meeting at 7 p.m. The purpose is to engage and hear from residents who are served by the policing services, says Lac La Biche RCMP Staf Sgt. Neil Bailey.
Lac La Biche County RCMP and Community Policing
Virtual Town Hall
Community members welcome
Tuesday, February 15
7pm
Connect through links at www.laclabichecounty.com
”Public engagement is key in problem-solving and knowing what issues or concerns a community has,” said Bailey, explaining that the Canada-wide RCMP force has to be responsive to the unique needs of each community it serves. “For example, what may be a Grande Prairie problem isn’t necessarily a Lac La Biche problem. We want to hear from our community members and stakeholders on what they see as a problem and how we can work collectively in resolving the issue.”
While the session hopes to provide clarity for the enforcement services, it will also serve as an educational opportunity to help members of the public better understand and identify crime prevention methods, and to create a stronger community bond with the enforcement services, said Chris Clark, the county’s manager of enforcement services.
"The thing we look at with law enforcement is if the public are not informed and aware of risks around them then they do not report them,” he told Lakeland This Week. “The other avenue is that if the public knows what types of things they should be reporting and to who, it allows for better community cohesion and the most effective use of [our] resources.”
The virtual engagement session is the first of its kind in the community that currently offers an RCMP detachment of about 20 members and a municipal Peace Officer department of about 10 officers. While each office does have some different mandates when it comes to the scope of their duties, they are meant to complement each other, says Clark, who has also been an RCMP constable in the community.
“We need to make sure that our officers are prioritizing calls for service and assigning them to the best agency so we are not duplicating resources and we also need to ensure that we are using our resources effectively by sending them to the correct complaints,” he said.
More meetings planned
As both departments continue collaborative efforts, in the future they plan on holding more events throughout the year to invoke real dialogue with the residents throughout the county in support of policing efforts, said Bailey.
“The plan is to have at least two a year. Both enforcement agencies need ongoing feedback to not only hear the concerns, but to address them and see if there [were] results from our previous Town Hall meeting.”
While reviewing the feedback from Tuesday's session will provide a framework for future meetings, Bailey says the two offices already have a good working relationship on many community issues.
“Traffic concerns are always an issue in any community,” he said, naming one of the community’s big concerns. “By having joint force operations we can provide better visibility and reduce traffic complaints and ultimately make our roads safer.”
Provincial RCMP Town Halls
While the local meeting isn’t part of the formal town hall meetings that have been hosted by RCMP officials across the province opposing the provincial government’s desire to look into a provincial police force, the meeting will highlight the significance of the RCMP’s role in rural Alberta.
“We will be touching on this subject as I believe it’s very important. We have lots of support from Lac La Biche County, Heart Lake, Beaver Lake and Kikino. We want to continue and build on this positive relationship moving forward.”
Engagement goal
Ultimately, said Clark, the Tuesday night session will be led by the community discussing their concerns followed by answers from both departments.
“Public engagement is absolutely vital to the success of any community support service provided by any level of Government,” Clark said.
Baily agrees.
“Once we know what the issues are, we can come up with various strategies in resolving the concerns,” he said.
How to attend
