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Cameron Stolz: Prince George city council must help our RCMP officers

The Police Services Review disclosed that 20 per cent of our officers are on leave, many due to stress.  It’s a shocking number and shows that our officers need more support from our city council than they are getting.
PG RCMP detachment 3
Prince George RCMP detachment on Victoria Street.

Businesses in our community are being overwhelmed by a massive increase in theft, vandalism, and threats of violence to their staff. 

That sense of being overwhelmed is also being felt by our city’s RCMP officers who respond to those calls.  In a report to council on Dec. 14, the Police Services Review disclosed that 20 per cent of our officers are on leave, many due to stress.  It’s a shocking number and shows that our officers need more support from our city council than they are getting.

The review states that our police officers are facing 150 per cent more calls for service than those in other large communities in British Columbia.  This is resulting in a caseload which is 84 per cent higher per officer than the officers in those other large communities.  These statistics are indicative of Prince George having the highest crime severity index in the province

Until the provincial government provides drug treatment and mental health facilities with supports in our community (especially for youth and women) and changes how the Crown deals with prolific offenders, the RCMP workload in our city isn’t going to change.  If anything, the Police Services Review indicates that the situation is likely to get worse.

These increased caseloads come at a time when the legal and evolving technical requirements are also creating significantly more administrative workload for police officers in every jurisdiction.  It is estimated that over 40 per cent of an officer’s day is now spent writing reports and performing administrative duties.  Providing additional municipal support staff would redirect time officers spend on paperwork to carrying out general duty.

The Police Services Review recommendations for consideration by council during the budget process was for 19 more officers and 11 municipal support staff.  This would be done by onboarding four officers and two municipal support staff each year for five years.   With the all-in cost of an officer being approximately three times that of a municipal support staff, there may be a greater benefit to adding all the municipal support staff in the first year, instead of spreading it over five.

Unfortunately, until the provincial government addresses their responsibility to provide support for mental health and addiction, and changes how prolific offenders are dealt with by Crown, the resulting costs associated with the fallout from these issues will continue to be downloaded onto our city.  Only persistent lobbying by our mayor and the city’s Intergovernmental Affairs Committee can hope to change it.

If mayor and council want to support our RCMP officers in the performance of their duties, it’s going to come at a cost to our property owners.  That cost is something that some business owners are already saying they are willing to pay to ensure our community is better protected.

Council is going to have to address the cost of that failure by our provincial government in the budget request from the RCMP for more staff.  In any workplace, having 20 per cent of your employees on leave would have management scrambling to find solutions and ways to implement them. The Police Service Report lays out the problems, backs it up with empirical data, and provides the solution. 

It’s up to our mayor and council to now decide if they want to support those who are struggling to serve and protect our community.

Cameron Stolz is a Prince George writer.