Communities weigh cost, benefit of safety officers

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This article was published 11/05/2023 (1237 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Following the Manitoba government’s announcement last week to address rural crime concerns, Westman municipalities are on the fence about hiring community safety officers, while a Brandon expert says their money could be better spent elsewhere.

On May 3, Justice Minister Kelvin Goertzen revealed plans for amendments to the Police Services Act, which would allow municipalities the authority to create community safety officer programs.

According to Goertzen, these changes would help rural communities address safety issues while reducing the workload on local law enforcement.

“We can have layered policing options so that municipalities can find a way to have either type of enforcement and then maybe relieve the RCMP on more traditional forms of policing,” Goertzen said last week.

Kam Blight, president of the Association of Manitoba Municipalities, said at the announcement that community safety officers are another “tool in the enforcement toolbox,” and giving them powers to enforce provincial statutes and bylaws would allow police to focus on more serious matters.

While many municipalities support the idea of community safety officers, some say the cost of hiring them is a barrier, and they have so far been left with little direction on the logistics of implementing a CSO program.

“I think it’s the right step,” Swan River Mayor Lance Jacobson told the Sun.

“The only thing is, for most communities, it’s an additional cost on top of our public safety, RCMP costs and so forth.”

Like many communities, Swan River doesn’t have a local police force and instead pays RCMP to patrol its neighbourhoods. But the cost of RCMP contracts for municipalities has been a sticking point for the provincial government recently.

The federal government has pushed the bill for retroactive pay for Mounties, stemming from the latest RCMP collective bargaining agreement, onto municipalities, who say they were not consulted on the matter. Goertzen said the province has sent a letter to Ottawa, urging the government to absorb these costs instead of burdening communities that are already dealing with budget pressures due to the COVID-19 pandemic and inflation.

Jacobson said Swan River is on the hook for hundreds of thousands of dollars in RCMP backpay, adding that if the municipality didn’t have to pay those costs, the money could be spent on CSOs. However, his council is still considering CSOs to complement RCMP, which would be cheaper than hiring additional Mounties, he said.

“[RCMP] officers are pulled out of the community constantly, we have a very large area,” Jacobson said. “If you had the option of having, say, three CSOs, then potentially that could fill the gap where the RCMP can’t be.”

But the municipality will have to wait and see what the final legislation looks like to determine whether CSOs would benefit the community, he said.

The mayor didn’t point to specifics but said the municipality is concerned about the increase in crime, as well as the “potential” for violent crime that he is seeing in other communities.

“That could easily happen in our home, so we’ve got to be vigilant about that,” Jacobson said.

Virden deputy mayor Marc Savy, a former police officer, also cited RCMP contract costs as a consideration for council when discussing the possibility of hiring CSOs in his community. Virden is responsible for $107,000 in retroactive pay as well as covering the cost of body cameras for RCMP officers at $3,000 per Mountie, he said.

“We do agree that these amendments will offer some municipalities with other options to enhance the safety of our community,” Savy told the Sun. “However, a large part of our budget is public safety, contracting the RCMP to provide the policing services in our community.”

While Savy said council is looking at the CSO option, he emphasized there needs to be more clarity from the province as to how CSO programs are funded, how officers are trained, and who would be qualified in the municipality to oversee the officers.

“We don’t feel that it’s our responsibility to administer the program in our community,” Savy said. “What does our [chief administrative officer] know about law enforcement training and all of that? Are we just adding another job onto our CAO?”

Savy said residents wants to see more Mounties around town, though monthly reports from RCMP suggest crime trends have stayed relatively consistent in the community.

RCMP media relations Sgt. Paul Manaigre told the Sun that more information about the province’s announcement is needed before the RCMP could comment on the amendments to the Police Services Act.

According to Manitoba RCMP statistics for the west region released Tuesday, overall crimes against people, which include assaults, robberies and sexual offences, have dropped two per cent since last year. Property crimes increased by 10 per cent from last year.

The Rural Municipality of Cornwallis is in a unique position — it has its own police force consisting of one officer.

According to councillor and chair of the Cornwallis police board, Shane Drohan, RCMP officers also assist in the community because their catchment area falls within the jurisdiction of the municipality. However, because Cornwallis has its own police force, it doesn’t have a contract with RCMP. Still, even without being on the hook for RCMP back pay, CSOs aren’t a sure thing for the municipality either.

Drohan said the police board hasn’t fielded any concerns about a rise in crime in the community or officers being spread too thin.

“The safety officer may not affect us very much, but it may be something that we could look into, depending on what their powers are.”

Drohan said the topic of CSOs will be raised at the municipality’s next police board meeting.

Meanwhile, a Brandon University sociology professor said municipalities could instead spend that money on community resources, such as youth programs or a rehabilitation centre, to address the root causes of crime.

“These things that help people, give them skill sets to take into the world that are not criminal, will lead to prevention and reduction of crime,” said Prof. Chris Schneider, who writes extensively about policing.

“It deals with the source, rather than the police and community service officers and policing more generally — that’s a response.”

He noted the RCMP has an online reporting service through which people can report less critical crime, ranging from a hit and run to lost property. Schneider said the fact there is current infrastructure in place for handling less serious crime incidents, calls into question why CSOs would be needed to handle these incidents as well.

The professor also suggested the amendments are a political move. With an election coming up later this year, the government is using the issue of public safety and crime to spur fear among voters, he surmised.

“That fear is, I think, driving the government to respond in a way that is trying to respond to the fear,” the professor said. “But they’re doing it in a way that is very vague, that will appease the political base, but not necessarily lead to prevention of crime or reduction of crime.”

» gmortfield@brandonsun.com

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