Fuchsia Dragon | [email protected]
The future of Peace Officer status in Jasper is still to be decided.
Licensing and enforcement manager Neil Jones returned to council this week with answers to their questions on legal and budgetary implications of training officers to a higher level or changing their designation to Municipal Compliance Officers.
One or the other will have to happen as in Alberta the level that Jasper鈥檚 officers are currently trained at is being phased out.
The change is coming about following findings from a public inquiry into the death of an on-duty peace officer in Alberta.
This week, Sergeant Rick Bidaisee, commander of the Jasper RCMP detachment, wrote a letter to council.
Bidaisee said the municipal enforcement services play 鈥渁n integral role not only in bylaw compliance but also in enhancing road safety through enforcement, education and visibility鈥�.
He said municipal enforcement provides 鈥渢he most complimentary service to our local detachment and the community of Jasper鈥�.
Councillor Bert Journault said he was 鈥渄isturbed鈥� that Bidaisee 鈥渋ndicated bylaw is supporting the RCMP鈥�.
鈥淚 think they should be clearly separated,鈥� he said.
Councillors Paul Butler and Jenna McGrath said they were not ready to make a decision on the designation yet, Butler said the council should look at strategic policy first and McGrath said they needed 鈥渕any more hours to discuss this and look to the scope of procedures and the levels of service鈥�.
But Mayor Richard Ireland did not agree.
He said strategic policy and the safety of officers are two distinct issues.
鈥淚 think this is a safety issue for our staff and even if in the end we come to the conclusion that we should have only Municipal Compliance Officers and no Community Peace Officers, which is potentially the outcome, how do we properly train and equip those officers?鈥� he said.
鈥淭his is a dangerous occupation.
鈥淚t doesn't matter what we call them, we are now aware of the dangers and we have to consider best practises regardless of what our strategic process is.
鈥淚 am prepared to deal with safety issues at the earliest opportunity.鈥�
McGrath agreed that municipal staff should be safe but encouraged Jones to put additional safety needs into the department鈥檚 budget.
鈥淚f any department needed to upgrade something to be in line with best policies to take care of staff, the department should have the ability to take care of whatever those needs are,鈥� she said.
