Staffing in rural areas still a problem for RCMP
Potential hires often prefer stability of municipal forces, SARM delegates hear
SASKATOON The RCMP admit more work is needed to assuage fears about crime in rural areas — a controversial issue that has become a government priority since a fatal shooting in a Biggar-area farmyard more than two years ago.
While there are now around 120 active Rural Crime Watch groups compared to a handful last year and rural residents are making better use of technology to keep track of suspicious behaviour, the force says policing remote areas remains a challenge. That is partly linked to staffing issues, the result of the RCMP not being “the police agency of choice (for potential recruits) anymore,” Cpl. Mel Zurevinsky told the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities’ midterm convention on Thursday.
“We are finding it harder to recruit people to go to different areas,” Zurevinsky told reporters, adding that he believes the itinerant lifestyle of an RCMP officer is less attractive than the stability offered by most municipal police forces.
Slow police response times in remote rural areas — where residents pay a fraction of what their counterparts in cities pay for police coverage — has long been a concern, particularly over the last two years.
According to RM of Paddockwood Coun. Tom Mcknight, little appears to have changed.
“The response was good — when they got there,” Mcknight said of a recent incident, which he said involved a local resident using his truck to block a suspected criminal vehicle until police and other law enforcement arrived an hour later.
“It’s frustrating when the RCMP don’t come on duty until 8 o’clock in the morning. If I know that, the criminals must know that. I don’t know if there’s just one thing that’s a solution,” Mcknight added while speaking with reporters.
Fears about rural crime — which, according to the RCMP dropped three per cent last year, while property crimes were down five per cent — have persisted, despite action from governments and grassroots groups across the province.
Last winter, the RCMP held dozens of town hall meetings during which officers explained crime statistics, the benefits of a resurgent Rural Crime Watch movement and urged residents to avoid taking the law into their own hands.
The provincial government has prioritized rural crime-fighting and poured millions into new initiatives, including a 258-member “protection and response team” and the new armed Saskatchewan Highway Patrol.
SARM President Ray Orb said he and many others in the 296 rural municipalities the association represents are waiting to see how the new initiatives perform, but acknowledged crime may not be less of a concern than it was two years ago.
“We know the RCMP is stretched. We’ve been lobbying for more of- ficers and greater visibility,” Orb said, adding that legislation introduced this week that would allow small municipalities to join regional police forces could also be helpful.
Zurevinsky said he’s confident the work done over the two years since Colten Boushie was shot and killed in Gerald Stanley ’s farmyard — Stanley was acquitted of seconddegree murder — has been effective, even though more remains to be done.
Mcknight echoed another concern raised in previous months.
“Letting people know what their rights are at least gives them the ability to make a conscious decision whether or not they want to (get involved) or not,” he said.
“At least then we have a choice, right?”
Last year, SARM was widely condemned after its 296 member rural municipalities voted 93 per cent in favour of adopting a resolution calling on the association to push for expanded self-defence rights.
Both the provincial and federal governments have said they want nothing to do with that proposal.