Staff shortages are impacting front-desk service at the Red Deer RCMP’s downtown detachment.
“We have a finite employees who are trained in dealing with the public, so there will be longer waiting times,” said Bart Rowland, municipal police services manager, who oversees civilian staff.
Between some long-term leaves and some RCMP office workers coming down with the Omicron variant, front desk staff is only at about 60 per cent, Rowlands added on Wednesday.
Red Deerians are, therefore, being asked to submit their complaints to the RCMP online, if possible.
Those who prefer filing a complaint in person can still come to the detachment, but will face longer waits than usual, said Rowland.
The RCMP civilian staffers who have fallen sick with COVID-19 have contracted the virus in the community — there is no workplace spread within the RCMP detachment, he noted.
“We are taking full precautions.”
Meanwhile, the policing side of RCMP operations has, so far, not been impacted by absenteeism due to illness.
An RCMP spokesperson stated on Wednesday, “We can confirm that our policing operations have not been affected by the new variant and we have not had to redeploy policing resources to maintain those operations. “
Public safety is the top priority, added the spokesperson, so the RCMP has contingency plans to ensure there are no disruptions to policing operations in case a higher levels of illness are experienced by officers.
The contingency plan includes redeploying policing resources to maintain operations, the spokesperson added.
lmichelin@reddeeradvocate.com
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