RCMP to hold rural town hall meetings

The Saskatchewan RCMP are planning town hall meetings in Biggar and Perdue next week.

The force says the meetings are not a response to unrest or worry following the shooting death of Colten Boushie and subsequent acquittal of Gerald Stanley, who farmed nearby.

Staff Sgt. Rob Embry said each detachment in the province will hold a town hall, with the aim of outlining the force’s rural crime strategies and soliciting feedback and suggestions from each community’s residents.

“We’re just trying to create a dialogue here, communication. Obviously, as police officers we want to have those conversations with our stakeholders, the people that we serve anywhere in Saskatchewan,” Embry said.

The issue of property crime is likely to dominate many of the meetings. Worry about theft and vandalism has flared up in Saskatchewan, and led to new government and RCMP initiatives.

In August, then-Justice Minister Gord Wyant unveiled a new $5.9 million Protection and Response Team, consisting of 258 armed officers, including 30 new positions, aimed at curbing rural crime.

Embry said the RCMP has its own initiatives, including an intelligence-based “targeted enforcement” Crime Reduction Team and a reservist program made up of retired officers who maintain their training.

“We know that we do not have the resources to be everywhere in rural Saskatchewan at one time,” Embry said of the reason underlying the new strategies, adding some 55 communities have recently set up or reactivated rural crime watch groups.

Boushie was shot in the head on Stanley’s Biggar-area farm in August 2016. The incident became a symbol of fractured relations in rural areas.