Community Safety Co-ordinator Herb Sutton spoke about the initiative of the RCMP to develop a Community Policing Support Team during his report to North Battleford city council March 27. It’s a dedicated unit that will “provide consistent efforts” to build relationships with agencies that get at the root causes of issues of community safety. Sutton describes it as a very “proactive” initiative on the part of the RCMP.
It won’t take additional resources. Instead, existing resources are redeployed.
“That is the kind of thinking, that is the kind of leadership that we really need throughout the community, because we all know that we’re in difficult economic times,” said Sutton.
The reality is they weren’t going to get a lot more resources, said Sutton. “So it’s really important we utilize the resources that we can.”
Sutton also spoke about attending the collective impact conference in Regina on March 15. Three people from North Battleford attended that workshop, including Sutton.
This is another research-based initiative, he said. “Collective impact” is described in his report as "the commitment of a group of actors from different sectors to a common agenda for solving a complex social problem.”
Sutton noted the conference attracted representation from six different government agencies. He took that as a signal the province was interested in this approach and sees value to North Battleford being “in on the ground floor” of it.
A third item he touched on was emergency responder high school training.
A total of 24 students have been enrolled. Sutton explained the original hope was for 15, so that is ahead of expectations. He believes the prospects for success are strong based on the interest, as well as strong support from the fire department, RCMP, City, school divisions and elsewhere.
There will be discussions by the end of April about the future of the program and Sutton hoped to increase the work being done on this, given some of the budget restrictions school divisions are facing.
Sutton also spoke about the efforts of the Battlefords Youth Planning Network. This is a newly formed group of agencies and organizations working with youth in the community to find productive activities for them to engage in.
The inaugural meeting had hosted 20 people representing 20 different agencies, and Sutton said the organizations have committed to share information and network and advocate for youth, and also identify any gaps that must be addressed. Another meeting of the group was scheduled for the first week of April.
One more item from his report was The Lighthouse’s plan to launch a mobile outreach program. That starts April 3 and the plan is to focus on helping clients who are out on the streets during the day.
Community Safety Co-ordinator Herb Sutton provides his latest monitoring report at Monday’s council meeting. Photo by John Cairns
