By Coriandré Lawrence
The major news of coming out of Wednesday?s town hall meeting last week is the RCMP?s plan of increased policing within three areas as we enter the new quarter of the fiscal year.
Detachment commander of Carlyle Cpl. Kelly Guider attended the meeting and gave his usual report to the mayor and council. His update detailed offences reported and or committed in the community. They ranged from liquor and traffic offences to drugs and others that fall under the criminal code; all of which can be found in the RMCP report. However, his focus of the night was to outline the goals of the Carlyle detachment in the new fiscal year. Guider said there are three main issues that the detachment will be focusing on and spoke to each and its importance. They include greater traffic enforcement, increased and positive involvement with youth and addressing the developing issue of drug use in Carlyle. Guider said the detachment plan for this year hasn?t changed from last year but rather, it has been streamlined. Out of the three areas, Kelly said he believes that Carlyle will soon see the effects of drug use within the community.
?Our community suffers greatly at the hands of drugs and drug use. I think it?s a matter of time until we see the ill effects, I think we are in the early stages; there is a lot of cocaine use,? he said.
Guider said there have been members of the community coming forward and it has provided aid in the RCMP?s mission to tackle the town?s rising drug problem but said there is still more to be done.
?A real heavy amount of use in the area - but it?s just at a point right now that we don?t see the effects. We don?t see the people missing work yet, stealing from their neighbours, from their homes but if we look at other communities this is the starting point of what is to come, so it would be nice to get a handle on it,? he said.
Cpl. Guider said he has always been an advocate of being visible on the streets when he addressed traffic enforcement plans and believes more RCMP presence would help prevent traffic offences.
?I think our officers need to be on the street more, I want more tickets because when we are stopping cars we smell weed, we get into the car we search it, everything we do, we benefit more when we are out there,? he said
In addressing the plans for youth involvement, Guider said the RCMP wants to be positive examples for the youth and get more involved with schools. In addition, he seeks to employ more alternate measures when a child is in trouble with the law.
?Instead of just slamming them into court and charging them with say, a mischief, we want to find out what the root causes are and truly utilize the youth criminal justice act that says - what if they need counseling, what if they just need something in their life that will take them on a different direction, perhaps they need more school involved, sports, things like that,? he said
?So if we can take a kid out of court and send him in a better direction - that?s the ? thing we want to focus on.?
