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Olds to study feasibility of municipal or regional police force

$30,000 provincial grant to be used to weigh pros and cons of various policing options
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The Town of Olds wants to look into the feasibility of an independent police force.

The province has approved a $30,000 grant for the project and now the call will go out for consultants.

Town chief administrative officer Brent Williams said the consultants will be asked to look into the cost of operating a standalone or regional police force compared with the current police budget.

“It’s not an effort to get rid of the RCMP, quite the opposite. In fact, it’s just to better understand what policing in Olds looks like and what it could look like,” Williams said at a recent council meeting.

The policing landscape in Alberta has been changing. The province has expanded the role of sheriffs and has suggested it may be time to replace the RCMP contract with a provincial police force. The Alberta government has said repeatedly no decision has been made.

Grande Prairie city council voted 8-1 earlier this month after a marathon debate to establish a municipal police force to replace the RCMP, who have policed the city of 68,000 since 1937.

RCMP would remain in the city while officers with the Grande Prairie Municipal Police Service are phased in over five years.

St. Albert has also applied for the grant.

Olds Mayor Judy Dahl said Grande Prairie’s move was not behind the town’s decision to apply for the provincial grant for an independent police feasibility study.

“Unless we do a study we don’t have the evidence-based facts to give our citizens. It’s that simple,” said Dahl. “If there is something we can give them that we can get out of this study, then why not apply?”

Dahl emphasized that council has taken no position on whether to change how the community is policed. Any move in that direction would involve extensive community input to see what residents want, she added.

She is surprised that more municipalities have not applied for the grant to get a similar snapshot of the pros and cons and financial implications of different policing options.

Dahl said she spoke recently with Alberta Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Services Mike Ellis and he told her a dozen other municipalities had indicated their interest in the grant to do their own studies.



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