Mounties make special rural teams permanent
Focus being put on guns, gangs, drugs, property crime
REGINA The RCMP has announced a permanent expansion of the Crime Reduction Team (CRT), which will continue to focus on the gang and firearm presence in Saskatchewan.
Originally created as a 90-day initiative to address concerns over rural crime, the team will be expanded into two permanent teams, each made up of five police officers, one crime analyst and one administrative employee.
Saskatchewan RCMP Assistant Commissioner Curtis Zablocki spoke to media at Depot on Friday morning. He said the CRT’s approach is not only enforcement based, “but will have a mandate to work closely with offenders, with communities, social agencies, government, to identify root causes and gaps in service that when addressed will help offenders leave a life of crime behind.”
The RCMP first used this approach in 2017, making five separate two- to three-day deployments of high intensity policing in Onion Lake over the year.
Then, from February to May this year, the CRT used the same philosophy when deployed in various communities across west-central Saskatchewan during the 90-day pilot period.
The RCMP used crime statistics and analysis of crime trends to identify the communities most in need of targeted enforcement, also known as “hot spotting.”
The team was tasked with acting on arrest warrants, court condition checks, targeted vehicle stops, hotspot identification, surveillance and drug and gang enforcement.
The Ministry of Corrections and Policing is providing $1.6 million in funding for the expansion. Funding for the 14 full-time team members is provided through the Provincial Policing Services Agreement.
“The RCMP has seen great success with this project since they started the CRT as a pilot last February, and we’re happy to support the establishment of these two permanent teams,” Corrections and Policing Minister Christine Tell said in a news release. “We look forward to seeing the positive impact this program will have.”
During the pilot period, the CRT made 181 arrests over with 384 outstanding Criminal Code charges and were able to lay 96 new charges. Included in that total were charges against 26 known gang members and affiliates.
“We’ve heard directly from our communities and detachments (about) the value of the Crime Reduction Team,” said Zablocki. “People in these communities are beginning to tell us that they’re starting to feel safe and that is exactly what matters.”
He said data collected during the pilot period showed calls for service went down and the number of prisoners being held dropped significantly. The teams will operate out of Prince Albert and North Battleford, Zablocki said, but will be mobile enough to provide support to other areas and communities across the province.
“The team in Prince Albert is going to be able to be deployed to some of our northern communities where we have some of the challenges around drugs and alcohol and gangs,” he said.
North Battleford’s team will focus on addressing concerns of property crime prevalent in the west.
The two teams, made up of officers who are experienced and trained in handling human sources, writing and executing search warrants and more, are expected to be fully operational by the fall.
Zablocki said a more formal evaluation process will take place once they have been established for some time.
While only two permanent CRTs are being established, Zablocki said the philosophy of addressing the root causes of crime among serial and prolific offenders will be adopted across the province.