Canmore RCMP are looking into establishing a dedicated school liaison position in the community.
Sgt. Ryan Currie with the detachment spoke about the initiative last week during a presentation of the local police force’s 2012 year-end report.
“We determined a full-time school resource officer would be an asset for the upcoming school year,” Currie told council last Tuesday (June 11). “Right now we are discussing with school administration what will make that work.”
He said the officer’s duties would include positive role modelling, corrective action within the schools, combating drugs and addressing bullying, assaults and threats.
“We see the most bang for our buck by physically being on site and available to students,” Currie said.
He said the proposed position includes having space at all local schools. The proposal, he added, would not add to current detachment numbers, so it would be the responsibility of one of the current members.
Currently, members are assigned to schools as liaison officers, but it is not their main priority.
“What we would like to do is have a dedicated resource to schools itself,” Currie said.
In relation to the year-end stats, Currie said one of the RCMP’s annual performance goals for 2012 was to increase traffic violation tickets by 20 per cent over the previous year, from 1,304 to 1,560 tickets.
Those results were exceeded with a 42 per cent increase of 2,442 traffic tickets issued during the year.
Currie said the detachment also built and maintained positive relations with community partners throughout the year with enhanced police shifts and dedicated foot and bike patrols throughout the summer. He said with increased visibility in town, officers proactively prevented noise complaints and other disruptive behaviour like assaults and alcohol-related calls for service.
The year-end report showed that 226 tickets were issued as a result of the enhanced shifts and most were for liquor offences.
Year-end crime stats also showed a reduction in overall crimes against persons (uttering threats, assaults and robberies, etc.) of 15.8 per cent with 154 incidents in 2012 from 183 in 2011. Total property crimes were down 6.8 per cent from 501 in 2011 to 467 in 2012.
Drug trafficking charges were up 31.3 per cent from 16 charges in 2011 to 21 in 2012.
Currie said the change in trafficking charges stem from increased intelligence and enforcement efforts of the local General Investigation Section, which is responsible for major crimes.
“We have really high hopes for that work to be done here in town,” he said.
He also commented that with a high percentage of people in the community being transient, i.e. visitors, it is hard to track trends in the statistics.
“That is where the statistics will fluctuate in a number of areas,” he said. “It is difficult to track because people coming into the community are the ones we find responsible for a number of incidents.”
Sexual assault rates, which rose 175 per cent from four reported in 2011 to 11 in 2012, were also addressed.
Currie said when total numbers are low a small change can cause a large percentage increase, so he couldn’t explain the reason behind the jump. However, he said overall the number of sexual assaults being reported in Canada is on the rise. He credited one reason for that as programs that empower people who are victimized by that kind of crime.
“Awareness campaigns really make a big difference,” he said, adding the Don’t Be That Guy campaign in Saskatchewan saw increased reporting of sexual assaults by third parties as an example.
