TOWN GETS NEW TOP COP

There's a new man in charge of the Drayton Valley RCMP detachment.

Steve Harrington is a 28-year RCMP veteran. Most recently he served as a
sergeant with the Evansburg detachment. He was promoted to staff sergeant
and took over command of the Drayton Valley detachment last week.

"I really enjoyed my time in Evansburg," he says. "I had two stints there.
First as a recruit right out of training and I've just come from there now.
(But) I like to treat life as an adventure and I'm looking forward to being
in Drayton Valley."

While there may be a new man in charge, Harrington says he doesn't expect
to make too many changes to the way law enforcement is carried out in
Drayton Valley, at least not for the time being.

"My way of doing things is not to make changes for the sake of it," he
says. "There may be some minor little administrative tweaking but I really
want to sit back and see what's going on. You do the best job you can, but
you can't be all things to all people. I like to do a handful of things
very, very well. You focus on a few things and you do them right."

Harrington's arrival takes the Drayton Valley detachment up to its full
complement of 15 members. It's the first time the detachment has been at
full strength in more than a year.

"I don't want to take anything away from what the corporals have done,
which has been great," says Mayor Moe Hamdon. "I think it's important to
have clear leadership in the detachment. I think Steve's going to fit into
this community really well and I'm looking forward to working with him."

While the detachment is now at full strength there have been suggestions
from some members of town council that the number of RCMP members needs to
be increased, particularly in the light of the area's methamphetamine problem.

"You can always use extra members," says Harrington. "There's probably not
many detachments or police forces that wouldn't say that."

"There were drug issues in Evansburg and there's drug issues here. It's the
same in Edson and Hinton and Whitecourt. It seems to be unique in some way
to this part of the province, but no one knows why. (The methamphetamine
problem) is right up there. It's something we'll have to very seriously
look at."