By Jessie Weisner (Twitter: @Jessie__Weisner)

Rimbey RCMP requests funding partnership with Clearwater County

Jul 12, 2018 | 8:59 AM

Rimbey RCMP presented to Clearwater County council Tuesday, requesting a funding partnership for additional administrative support in the detachment.

The Rimbey detachment currently has six regular members – one sergeant and five constables. A position was created in 2013 for one full-time support staff, but it expired at the end of 2016.

According to the detachment, members spent 1230 hours in 2017 on administrative work, leaving less than 25 per cent of their time for proactive policing duties.

“Our partners and community are seeking greater police visibility and more community engagement while our officers and support staff just can’t keep up with the administrative demands,” says Sergeant Kurtis Pillipow with Rimbey RCMP. “It has become very difficult to balance operations and administrative responsibilities in today’s policing environment.”

According to the detachment, crime in Rimbey has been on the rise since 2013, with property crime almost tripling. In addition, the population has grown 11 per cent.

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Sergeant Pillipow says the detachment doesn’t have room in the budget for an additional administrative member.

“In the foreseeable future, the compliment of regular members in the Rimbey Detachment will not be increased and it is not expected that there will be additional funding for public service employees. The reality today is that there are still not enough police officers in our detachment to do all the ‘police work’ that exists.”

Pillipow adds that developing a funding partnership with Clearwater County would be very beneficial.

“Increasing our support staff ratios going forward would be an effective means of improving overall service delivery. I would be pleased to receive additional support staff funding in Rimbey and the town of Rimbey,”

Council says county administration will review the request and present recommendations for consideration at an upcoming meeting.