BATTLEFORD — Battlefords RCMP Insp. Ryan How shared his thoughts about policing in the Battlefords during the latest Battlefords and District Chamber of Commerce’s Chamber on Tap session.
The event was held at Cafe 4 U in Battleford on Nov. 20.
Some of the issues discussed included staffing at the Battlefords RCMP detachment. There is currently a staffing shortage.
"We're not at the level where we could be as proactive as we want," How said. "A lot of our supervisors have extremely creative ideas that they want to bring out and be proactive and leverage some technology to get ahead of some of the property crime and even persons crime, and further suppress gang members and gang violence. But just at our current levels, we have to be response-based. So until that stabilizes and increases, we're just going to have to be responding mostly."
He said the RCMP are doing their best to try to bring more recruits to the detachment area.
"We've really got the word out about how amazing of a community the Battlefords area is," How said. "We've done our own internal recruiting. We've shown that there are a lot of people here serving at the Battlefords detachment that have come here from a long ways away from other provinces and wound up staying here 10 years."
How, who is originally from Cut Knife, said he chose to come back to serve in this area.
"There's always options for us to go across Canada, but this is a great place to live," he said.
How said dealing with prolific offenders is a current priority for police as far as crime prevention goes.
"It's pretty much all of our resources focused on managing prolific and violent offenders," he said. "We are trying to, as able, as capacity allows, focus on property crime. We've had some really great successes there, specifically thanks to our Gang Task Force … and the Crime Reduction Team. They've done amazing work for us, and allowed our members to be the first responders that they are and do tremendous work."
How noted that crime numbers have been going down in the Battlefords area as a positive sign.
"I really want to be careful with our statistics showing that there's a decrease in crime," he said. "I'll take it as a positive … We certainly acknowledge that there's some problems that need to be dealt with, but we take statistics with a grain of salt. We want to make sure that we're hearing from our citizens that they're feeling safe. When we're hearing that, then we know we're doing a good job beyond what we're seeing on stats."
