MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY - County council has provided direction to local RCMP detachments on some of the municipality’s policing priorities for 2022-23.
The move came during the recent regularly scheduled council meeting.
“Annually, Mountain View County council is engaged on the priorities that it would like the local RCMP detachments to focus on,” said Jeff Holmes, Mountain View County's chief administrative officer. “This information is then taken by the detachment, culminated with feedback from other municipalities and stakeholders of the department into its overall strategic objectives for the upcoming year.”
Reeve Angela Aalbers said she would like to see police focus on a number of priorities.
“On reducing property crimes, I think it is really reducing the rural property crimes,” said Aalbers. “As far as we go, we’d like them to focus on rural crime and how it is impacting Mountain View County.”
Addressing mental health and domestic violence issues should also be priorities, she said.
Coun. Peggy Johnson said she would like to see increased drug enforcement coupled with efforts to reduce rural property crime.
“Instead of looking at prolific offenders, and prolific offenders are traditionally attached to drug (offences), I would suggest that we put drug enforcement right out there,” Johnson said. “Certainly I know of two properties in my division that continue to be pretty problematic. I think increasing drug enforcement in rural areas (should be a priority).
“When local neighbours see continuous traffic to a certain location, it’s not the traffic they are worried about, it’s what’s going on at the location.”
She said partnering and engaging with members of the public should also be a priority.
Deputy reeve Greg Harris said he would like to see increased police visibility through engagement and connection with residents.
Coun. Gord Krebs said he would like to see increased police visibility and community engagement.
The suggested priorities will go to all three RCMP detachments operating in Mountain View County.
Detachment commanders will be appearing before council on May 11.
“When they come and do their annual review with council, all of these are good questions for council to ask, what are the issues and how are they working towards resolving these concerns that we have within out community,” said Holmes.
