It appears that, at least for now, the Battlefords RCMP is not planning to switch full-time to a Regina call centre for all calls to the detachment.
Inspector John Sutherland spoke about that issue at North Battleford city council Jan. 27, in response to a question raised by Councillor Ryan Bater.
Bater noted that during budget deliberations, city director of human resources Susan Degenstein indicated "there's going to be a move from local detachment staff or city staff answering the calls to a call centre I believe located in Regina," said Bater. He wanted to know how that worked and timelines on when it could happen.
In his response, Sutherland indicated the detachment still intends to take calls locally, most of the time.
"There's no move at this point for transferring all the calls," said Sutherland.
Sutherland did note that in previous months, because of staff vacancies, the detachment weren't able to take calls 24 hours a day seven days a week with the staff they had on hand. At any given time of the day or evening some calls were transferred to Regina where staff are there to answer the telephones.
That's an option already available to the local RCMP, he indicated. "It happens when we need it to, and when we can provide the service locally we do," said Sutherland.
He added "certainly as we look at efficiencies across the board and how we can perhaps provide services and increase use, we may look at different things, but rest assured we will be in consultation with the City and council before we do anything drastic."
