New Blackfalds Detachment Commander ‘living the dream’

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“This community is very supportive and it’s brought me back,” adds Martin. “I’m from small town Saskatchewan and I find this is very much small town policing, so there’s great support from the community and the people, great members, great support staff, and the mayor and council have been nothing but welcoming, so I’m living the dream.”

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In terms of challenges, he says the RCMP as a whole is dealing with staffing crunches, Blackfalds being no exception.

“It’s really a shortage in numbers and having the resources to serve the public as best we can with what we have,” states Martin. “Rural crime, is at the forefront all over the province and other provinces as well, so we’re trying to combat that and just day-to-day operations to keep our communities and people safe is my priority. The big one though is having the people to do the job.”

However, Martin doesn’t feel Blackfalds has any unique challenges that other communities don’t face.

“There are issues in every community, but anything unique to Blackfalds I haven’t seen yet,” he says. “Gasoline Alley is quite busy for our guys, so the response times to get out there is sometimes one of the issues. We have a huge detachment area that crosses the city, so that’s one of the big ones, the large detachment area.”

The detachment area stretches from Clive in the east, past Poplar Ridge near Sylvan Lake in the west, parts of Gull Lake in the north and Highway 42 to the south.

“We’re very approachable, we have a great group, and our morale is great,” Martin says. “Members want to work hard to make sure the people of this community and the communities we serve are safe and feel well-protected. Our door’s always open.”

Martin adds that he loves his job and still loves coming to work and putting on the uniform every day.

“We participated in the Blackfalds Days parade here on the weekend and I was really taken aback at the support that we do have,” he concedes. “People were cheering, people were clapping, they were happy to see us, we had our old retro cruiser out, and we had members on Segways on a side-by-side. It was really heart-warming to feel the support we have in the community.”