To the Editor:
Concerning the recent proposal for the Town to hire a private security firm to supplement its police coverage, local business persons and all tax payers should consider the following facts.
Presently, there are twelve (12) full time RCMP regular members who are on Town Detail (the RCMP unit charged with policing of the Town). The Town pays for ten (10) of these members and the Province pays for two (2). There are, in addition to these regular RCMP members, three (3) full time administrative employees plus two Peace Officers employed by the Town. The Town also has recently approved entering into a photo radar contract to provide additional traffic enforcement.
The population of St. Paul, according to a 2014 census, was 6,000.
In 1969-70, the population of St. Paul was about 4,000. I was a member of the RCMP during this time and was posted to St. Paul Town Detail. This unit, at that time, consisted of a Corporal, who worked straight days Monday to Friday and three constables who worked the day and night shifts. There was one constable on each day shift and night shift during the week and on weekends two constables on the evening shift from 5:00 p.m. until the Town went to sleep at around 3-4:00 a.m.
There were two very busy hotels with licensed premises at this time, namely the Donald and the Lavoie. Part of the nightly duties included checking doors front and back of business premises. It is surprising what one can see and observe when on foot. Portable two-way radios were not yet available. In addition to the nightly foot patrols, the NCOS (supervisors) encouraged the member(s) working days to make foot patrols through the downtown area and converse with the population and business people, hearing their complaints and concerns, if any, and picking up any information of interest. To be effective, you had to be ‘out there’ and visible.
Members, who were assigned to Town Detail, were restricted to within Town limits and only in rare emergency circumstances were authorized to travel outside Town limits on police business. I believe this changed some years ago as a result of the RCMP convincing Town Council that the Town would be better served if Town Detail members could be routinely allocated to duties outside of Town and then if something ‘big’ occurred in Town, the resources of the whole detachment could be available. Should this be the case, then the taxpayers of St. Paul are not getting what they are entitled to and pay for in so far as police coverage goes.
To those members of Town Council and Administration and any others who are receptive to the hiring of a private security firm to provide extra ears and eyes to the police, may I suggest we make the most efficient use of the ones we already have and pay for?
To suggest that the $90,000.00 cost of a private security guard could be met by raising the mill rate is an insult to all of the business owners who saw a 20 per cent plus hike to their property taxes in 2014.
Orville Morrow
St. Paul
