There was lively discussion and some venting expressed at Alex Dillabough Centre Tuesday as the RCMP held a town hall meeting in Battleford.
But there was also relationship building, as the RCMP sought the public’s input and assistance in addressing crime.
This was just the latest in a number of town halls the RCMP had been holding in communities throughout Saskatchewan over the past several months. Recent town halls held in the region have included ones in Biggar and Spiritwood.
S. Sgt. Greg Abbott, of the RCMP Central District Management Team in Saskatoon, did much of the presenting at the Battleford meeting. A key message from Abbott was the RCMP’s desire to build relationships with the public in the communities they are serving. He told reporters following the meeting that he felt the Battleford town hall achieved that.
“I think it accomplished what we set out to do and is typical of the town halls we’ve been having,” said Abbott.
The presentation in Battleford has come on the heels of a number of criminal incidents in the past few months in the region. There have been mounting concerns about drugs and firearms activity, and concerns about property crime, especially in rural areas. All these and other issues were raised at some point during the meeting Tuesday.
Abbott acknowledged to reporters drugs are a problem.
“There’s more and more crime out there in terms of drug-related crime, a lot of the property crimes are drug-habit driven,” said Abbott. “And we have had an increase in firearms seizures and the use of firearms in crime.”
RCMP presenters at the meeting — which also included S. Sgt. Darcy Woolfitt of Battlefords detachment — covered extensive ground during the two-hour meeting in describing the challenges the RCMP faces in addressing the criminal activity.
Abbott spoke of the RCMP challenges in staffing and recruitment, as well as in acquiring the training needed to deal with various situations. He noted the rise of situations encountered in 2018 that weren’t commonplace for RCMP members to deal with before.
“We didn’t have crystal meth when I started with the force,” said Abbott. “We didn’t have fentanyl.”
The rise in shooting incidents has changed things as well.
“For the first 10 years of my career we didn’t have school shootings,” said Abbott. To address that prospect, members have had to have active shooter training.
A big challenge is the sheer size of the areas their detachments must cover.
“As much as we try to be visible, it’s pretty difficult,” said Abbott to reporters.
“That’s one of the main challenges that we have, so we have to police smarter. By that, I mean use technology such as the automatic license plate readers … to be able to pick up on travelling criminals,” he said.
Public Can Help
Despite the challenges, Abbott told the audience the force was “making the most with what we have.” Moreover, he stressed the need for the public to assist them through groups such as Citizens on Patrol, as well as in reporting crime.
Abbott spoke of the force’s efforts with intelligence-led policing, and encouraged the public’s involvement by reporting crime.
“We so desperately need the public to be the eyes and ears of what’s going on,” Abbott said to the audience.
Abbott talked about traffic enforcement efforts and defended the amount of resources put towards it. He particularly noted the risks of impaired driving and, increasingly, texting and driving.
“If we don’t address that we’re not doing our job,” said Abbott.
Abbott also spoke to what he called the “elephant in the room” — the issue of protection of property, and property rights. His message to the audience was to avoid confrontational situations.
“The people that you’re dealing with, with these property crimes — you don’t know what you’re dealing with,” said Abbott, noting those invaders might be under the influence of drugs and the potential for violence ramps up hugely. There is also the potential these criminals have firearms.
“If you can avoid a confrontation, you do it, because you may end up facing a situation you will regret for the rest of your life.”
In speaking with reporters, he urged people in those situations to phone the police.
“Call the police, let us do our job, and don’t initiate a confrontation because you don’t know what you’re dealing with. More and more criminals have weapons, and that’s the main reason we try to get the message out there.”
Interchange between the presenters from the RCMP and the 40 or so people who showed up was engaged. While it was not a large crowd, it did include political leaders such as Battlefords MLA Herb Cox and Battleford mayor Ames Leslie, who heard some of the concerns expressed and were able to participate. Cox spoke at the meeting about what he had heard when chairing the Crime Reduction Committee, particularly on property crime in rural areas, and of the creation of the Protection and Response Team to address response times.
There was considerable venting about the crime in the area, and how to deal with it.
“The biggest thing is we don’t have property rights,” said one individual in the audience, who added elected officials “should be going after our government to get our property rights back here, so we can protect ourselves.”
Others in the audience pointed out the issues went far beyond what the RCMP could do.
“The problem is not in the Battlefords,” said former North Battleford mayor Wayne Ray. “The problem is in Ottawa and the youth justice system.”
Ray also noted North Battleford “needs a lot more work in the social services area,” and pointed out that was a provincial responsibility.
First Nation Relations
There was also a lengthy discussion about the RCMP’s relationship with the First Nation community, and the issues faced by Indigenous people including the residential schools legacy.
One woman, who identified herself as being 24 years retired from the RCMP, grilled the RCMP for a lack of Indigenous members in the force who are visible in the area. Woolfitt responded the Battlefords detachment does have five Aboriginal members.
The verbal exchanges were intense at times, but the general feeling expressed by the end was that many issues had been aired — perhaps more so than at other recent town halls.
North Battleford Community Safety Co-ordinator Herb Sutton remarked near the end that there had been a “level of honesty that’s coming to the forefront that is going to be very helpful in building the relationships we need to build.”
The RCMP representatives were also encouraged.
“I think that the dialogue that happened both with the police and amongst themselves in the audience was excellent, and that’s what this is all about is the relationship building, not just with the police but in different members of the community amongst themselves, in terms of what the challenges are with respect to crime reduction, ” said Abbott.
There are more RCMP town halls planned for the area. Two more were set to go in Denholm and Meota that week, and there were plans to hold one on a nearby First Nation as well.
