The out migration of redcoats begins

Prince Rupert has many seasons it seems; there is herring season, salmon season, the monsoon rain season and the Mountie transfer season. That last one is in the high point of its cycle right now, as the city sees a number of familiar members of the local detachment transfer out.

With more than a dozen members leaving town, it’s a major change for the force and something that the community has become used to over the years.

This time around, roughly 45 % of the incoming crop of those charged to “Mantien le Droit”, will be just out of the RCMP depot in Regina, so it will no doubt be a rather eager and gung ho group of constables on patrol over the next little while, finding their first taste of law enforcement on the streets of Rupert.

The Daily News had a full report on the upcoming changes, as well as a bit of background into the challenges facing those that patrol the streets and highways of the area. From loud parties, to traffic duty, vandalism, theft and public drunkenness; there’s apparently no shortage of work waiting out there for those that will have just arrived, or are on their way to our town.

The full article is provided below.

RUPERT COPS GET OVERHAUL
By James Vassallo
The Daily News
Wednesday, July 5, 2006
Pages One and Three

Prince Rupert’s policing is undergoing a big change this summer, with more than a dozen officers headed out of town.

“Over the next couple of months there is going to be a significant turnover,” said Inspector Ray Noble, officer in charge of the Prince Rupert detachment.

“(But) we haven’t had any delays in staffing, everything is going quite well. The new members are (already) arriving.”

Local officers have transferred to Ottawa to work on Parliament Hill, to Vernon, Summerland and London, Ontario among other places.

“The members that are moving on from Prince Rupert are going to some interesting places, they’ve taken on some good pretty good jobs,” said Noble. “But we’ve also got a pretty interesting crew coming in.”

Among the new members are a couple of promotions including a new officer in charge of operations and new head of the general investigation section.

The replacements will also be made up of about 45 per cent new cadets.

“One of the interesting things about doing that, is those members actually arrived anywhere from five to six months… before the positions are vacated,” he said.

They finish their field training before they get transferred into a substantive position, so we got very lucky that way.”

The remaining members coming to Rupert have a number of years of service, and are also bringing training that will allow some specialized skills to be taught to officers locally.

While the summer will be a transition period for the detachment, he local RCMP will continue to focus key areas of concern including loud parties, property crime and road safety.


Since a “no tolerance” approach was adopted towards loud parties last year, complaints have dropped more than 10 per cent in the first six months of 2006, from 628 to 557.

RCMP have double the number of municipal bylaw tickets, a $100 fine they hand out for the noise disturbance, to 150 this year.

“One of the things we are doing is giving a lot more ticket,” said Noble. “One of the nice things about taking that approach is we’re now finding that most of the time when we attend a complaint we’re getting compliance.”

And for those repeat offenders who are not taking the tickets seriously, police have been able to up the ante and punish offenders.

“A lot of the tickets we issued were to people that had multiple – three, four, five – tickets,” he said. “One of the things that has happened as a result of that, I think everyone’s surprise, is that we’ve actually gotten arrest warrants for some of the people that failed to pay their tickets.

“We’re going to that next loud party complaint and they’re being arrested on the strength of outstanding warrants.”

RCMP will also be using a mischief provision of the Criminal Code, which essentially makes it unlawful to interfere with someone’s enjoyment of their property, to get a warrant to seize stereos if partying gets out of control in the future.

The summer will also see a continuation of high levels of traffic enforcement, something the Rupert inspector acknowledges has benne a controversial issue locally.

“One of the things that everybody has to remember with IRSU (Integrated Road Safety Unit) is that their goal is to reduce the amount of serious collisions, reduce the numbers of injuries and deaths that occur on the highways,” said Noble. “There’s a very common feeling that the level of enforcement for seat belts is excessive in the area, but there’s a very good reason for (it).

“That is simply because our compliance rate is well below the provincial average and there is a direct correlation between the seat belt usage and prevention of injuries”

Noble notes unsafe traffic behaviours are far more likely to result in death – 12 times more likely – or injury – hundreds of times more likely – than criminal activity.

“The impact of accidents spread beyond the people it happens too,” he said. “Yes, there are high levels of enforcement, but they’re directed at those areas that are … either casual factors to accidents or increase the likelihood of an injury in an accident.
“Using your seat belt saves lives and prevents injuries … increased levels of enforcement leads to increased compliance. I guess my message is that if our compliance rates get over 85 per cent, our focus will be able to shift to other priorities.”

Impaired driving, of both cars and water craft, will also be a focus.

Beyond motorists, careless pedestrians, cyclists and skateboarders are also contributing significantly to the traffic problems. Police will ticket jaywalkers and, if it becomes necessary, even seize skateboards.

On the property crime front, Noble explained volumes of activity tend to have more to do with who is in town rather than what season it is.

That being said, officer swill be focusing resources on the small minority of people that are responsible for the vast majority of the vandalism, thefts and public drunkenness in the downtown core.
“They vary their activity, it’s thefts one day and vandalism the next, and drinking, or whatever – they cycle through all kinds of different behaviours but very often it’s the same core group of people responsible for the largest number of complaints,” he said.