NEW FACE FOR DARE PROJECT

There will be a new officer in uniform roaming the halls of
Wetaskiwin's schools.

Const. Lee Greico-Savoy has been promoted to corporal and has been
transferred to the Chestemere RCMP detachment.

For the past several years, Greico-Savoy has been the Wetaskiwin RCMP
detachment's school resource officer, but her departure comes doesn't
mean the position will be left empty.

Const. Jonathon Lepine is taking over for Greico-Savoy, after more
than two years in the area as a general duty officer.

"He recently had been trained in DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance
Education), and he will be delivering the DARE program, which will be
about 40 per cent of the school resource officer's functions," said
Wetaskiwin RCMP Insp. Curtis Zablocki.

"The other percentage includes responding to complaints at the
schools, giving other school related and crime prevention
presentations at the schools."

Zablocki said the position includes Wetaskiwin and area schools in its
mandate.

Important part of policing

"It's clearly an important part of our policing operations in the
detachment within the detachment areas. Youth is one of our natural
priorities and one of the country. This is just one way that us at the
local detachment reach out to our youth and have that interaction with
them," he said.

Zablocki said when specialized positions are vacated at the
detachment, they are advertised locally first to see if there is any
interest internally. He said there were a number of applicants and the
position was easy to fill.

"(Lepine) brings a real good ability to interact with youth. He has
children of his own, I don't believe they are school age. He did well
within his class at the DARE course. He'll be an asset in that position."

Greico-Savoy's transfer and Lepine's transition to school resource
officer aren't the only moves at the Wetaskiwin detachment.

More officers on the move

Const. Dan Junior was a plainclothes member of the Wetaskiwin RCMP, he
has recently completed training in forensic identification, and is on
the move to the Red Deer RCMP forensic identification unit, which does
service Wetaskiwin.

"So he will come out, if we have a crime scene, they will be
processing the crime scene, or if it is something as simple as
fingerprinting an article or an item or even photographing a certain
complex scene, they would be involved in that," said Zablocki.

"It will be a real asset to have Const. Junior, who knows the area
coming back to provide that service."

Those changes, along with the detachment's Const. Scott Mercer, taking
over community policing duties in Hobbema, leaves three spots to fill.

"I am quite comfortable, even with these experienced members going on
to different areas and avenues," said Zablocki.

He explained the RCMP encourage the growth and professional
development of the RCMP members.

"If they have an interest in certain areas, then we will work with
them to get them to that stage to where they need to be competitive
for the position they are working toward. At the same time, there is
always someone to come into their shoes that they leave behind and to
fill that role."

Zablocki said the detachment would be looking to backfill those
positions, something that can take various forms.

"Typically we will receive cadets from our training facility in Regina
or experienced members on lateral trainings from within the province
or region," he said.