CRIME DRIVES CALL FOR MORE MOUNTIES

Rural RCMP Need Boost, Says Minister

Organized crime and drugs have made rural policing more complicated,
and the province's top cop says Alberta needs more Mounties to keep up
with the trends.

The number of RCMP officers patrolling rural Alberta has barely budged
in recent years, while at the same time smaller communities are now
becoming home to sophisticated criminal groups seeking to escape the
scrutiny of big-city police forces.

"Policing has changed dramatically over the past three and a half
years," Solicitor General Heather Forsyth said Thursday.

"When I took over (as solicitor general) people in places like Camrose
were talking to me about issues like vandalized farm equipment -- now
we're talking about organized crime, meth and marijuana grow ops."

Forsyth's comments come just a day after Statistics Canada released
new numbers showing the nation's crime rate has climbed substantially
for the first time in a decade, partially due to an increase in
organized crime rackets such as counterfeiting.

Alberta municipalities shared in a $58-million increase to police
funding in the last provincial budget, and Forsyth said the province
must now look at bolstering the RCMP's presence in rural Alberta.

"I would like to see more RCMP officers in this province," she said.

While frustrated senior officers note privately that some rural
detachments haven't seen an increase in manpower since the 1980s, RCMP
officials are more diplomatic about the need for more resources when
speaking publicly.

"No matter what type of business or industry you're in, you always
have a desire for more," said Cpl. Wayne Oakes, a spokesman at RCMP K
Division headquarters in Edmonton.

The RCMP is a federal agency, but the provincial government -- not
Ottawa -- is largely responsible for coming up with money to increase
the police force's presence in Alberta.

The provincial government pays Ottawa approximately $100 million
annually to act as Alberta's provincial police force, responsible
mainly for patrolling rural areas and smaller municipalities.

The province's payment represents 70 per cent of policing costs, while
the federal government pays the remaining 30 per cent.

To increase the value of the contract -- and hire more officers -- the
province must first decide to hike its contribution.

However, just when the province may do that isn't yet clear.

Part of the extra police funding doled out in the provincial budget
last March went toward aiding small municipalities struggling with
policing costs.

Under the new rules, any community with a population under 5,000 now
has the entire cost of its RCMP presence covered by the 70-30 split
between the provincial and federal governments.

Previously, the province would recoup its 70 per cent share of the
policing contract by billing any municipality over the 2,500 mark.

Forsyth said she wants to see what effect that funding boost has
before determining how much more the province will contribute.

"We need to look seriously at what we have now as a complement for the
RCMP in this province, but I also believe we need to let the dust
settle," she said.

There are 1,128 RCMP officers covered by the provincial policing
contract, though that doesn't reflect the total number of Mounties in
Alberta.

RCMP members working in areas of federal jurisdiction, such as
cross-border drug enforcement and customs, aren't covered by the
provincial contract -- nor are officers working in larger
municipalities such as Red Deer and Airdrie, which contract directly
with the federal government.

The number of roles the RCMP is asked to fill not only puts strain on
the force from within, but there are signs it is fraying the
relationship it shares with the province's other law enforcement agencies.

In a nationwide survey of 222 policing partners, the Alberta RCMP's
performance in several categories was rated consistently lower than in
other parts of the country.

Nationally, respondents gave the RCMP's overall performance a mark of
72 out of 100 -- but the 15 Alberta agencies that filled out the
survey gave the Mounties a 63.

One Alberta police chief said the RCMP works hard to meet its many
commitments, but is struggling to keep up with too few resources.

"For 100 years, without a formal agreement in place, the RCMP has been
there for us when we need them," said Terry Dreaddy, chief of the
Taber Police Service.

"The RCMP, in my opinion, isn't funded properly. They're facing those
problems on a daily basis, trying to do the best they can with what
they've got."