VICTORIA COUNTY LOOKING INTO DISTRICT POLICING

A delegation of concerned and frightened citizens of the Bay St. Lawrence
Area came to Victoria County Municipal Council on February 29th, to ask for
policing support for their community.

The community is being vandalized by individuals under the influence of
drugs and alcohol.

"No car or home is safe in our community," a spokesperson for the
contingent said.

"No-one will speak up for fear of reprisals."

They estimate 90% of the community's youth are involved with abuse of drugs
and alcohol.

"They don't care who they hurt to get their high.

"Businesses suffer and it is not fair for the honest people to have to suffer."

The delegation was seeking the Municipality's support to help solve the
recurring problems of arson, theft, vandalism, and other criminal offenses.

Warden Wayne Budge suggested a Committee of the Whole council meet with the
two RCMP detachment Commanding Officers before the next Council meeting.

This suggestion was made into a motion and passed with the promise to the
delegation that Council would have something to report back to them at the
next sitting of Council on March 27th

The committee met with Sgts. Everett Densmore of the Ingonish Detachment
and John Trickett of the Baddeck Detachment.on March 9th.

The result of this meeting was to pursue a Victoria County District
Policing approach which would amalgamate or integrate some of the services
which are presently being duplicated in the two Victoria County RCMP
detachments. The reduction in duplication Sgt. Densmore, told the Victoria
Standard that on the Bay St. Lawrence area crime situation he has initiated
a number of processes he hopes will help the residents.He understands that
response time is an issue and that response times of up to 55 minutes can
be attributed to distances and geography and that a resident officer would
still have to wait for back-up as is required by the occupational health
and safety.

"However, we have implemented improvements in technologies and
communications which will allow the officer stationed in Dingwall to do the
required paper work there rather than travel to Ingonish," Sgt Densmore said.

"The Ingonish Detachment now has two tasers which will help officers become
involved in riskier situations and we have instituted regular patrols into
the area which are logged and audited.

"I have also attended two meetings with the families involved to gain a
better understanding of the imbedded issues in the area."

Sgt. Trickett said he believes Council is exploring every possible angle to
help the situation in the northern part of the County

"With Victoria County District Policing no-one is losing anything, it will
free up more man hours in our day to day operations which will result in
more 'boots in the street'.he said.