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Kamloops  

Merritt RCMP officer positions are at risk in city’s early budget plans

Cuts to police proposed

Municipal support for the RCMP detachment may be decreased as the city is looking for ways to cut costs amongst nationwide inflation.

As the May deadline for city council to finalize the town's budget plan for 2025-2029 comes ever-closer, cutting officer spots for the RCMP has been discussed as a viable way to save money.

Funding for the RCMP in the 2025 financial plan currently accounts for about 40 per cent of the municipal levy allocation or about $5 million invested into the field of protective services.

Operating costs in all fields are expected to rise each year for the city. Funding allocated to the RCMP may even account for half the municipal budget in 10-years-time.

Mayor Mike Goetz is looking at ways to balance all sides of the situation.

"We also need to talk about federal RCMP coverage the way we’re going right now. In 10 years, it’ll be over 50 per cent of our budget. We can’t go in that direction,” he said during the Jan. 14 council meeting in which the budget was the centre of attention.

The city is contemplating an eight to 12 per cent municipal tax increase. As providing funding to RCMP is a large money-sink, the city is planning ways to decrease some of those costs.

There have been 25 options presented to city council as ways to lower the tax increase by various percentages.

In 17 of these options, cuts to RCMP spots or other protective services such as the removal of the physical space for the community policing office are part of the plan.

RCMP Staff Sgt. Josh Roda told the Herald in an email that he is supportive of vacating the Community Policing Office located at Spirit Square.

"I am supportive of this as the building dose pose a bit of a security risk. Marlene Jones, the Community Policing coordinator, often works there alone, which can be a risk to her as we cannot provide an officer to be in that building 24/7/365,” the email said.

Jones would not be losing her position if the building is closed, only relocated to work in the detachment instead.

Despite the seemingly dire situation, Merritt's chief administrative officer Cynthia White said in the Jan. 14 council meeting that the police cutbacks shouldn't be felt too bad.

In Merritt's RCMP detachment there are 17 spaces available for RCMP officers, 14 of which have been filled.

White argues that the city could keep their contract with the RCMP for 17 members and instead amend their budget for the expected 14 or 15 officers working. In the unlikely case more officers will transfer to Merritt bringing the total count up to 15 or 17 officers, the city's budget will have to change to accommodate the planned officers.

Roda told the Herald he would be happy to work with the city in any situation.

"I am happy to work with them in any way they need to, to try to balance their budget and try to work with them. So if they want a budget for 15 and and we just talk about how many resources we in place. That works,” he said.

Still, he confirms that the city would benefit from keeping the two RCMP spots.

He said if the two positions were cut, the detachment would no longer be able to provide 24-hour service.

"The response time would change significantly,” he said. "It could go from it being a three minute call when somebody dials 911, to them waiting 30 minutes for the police officer to arrive.”

Despite the detachment being under capacity, Roda said if the open spots would be cut from the contract it would lead to more officers being transferred to other detachments.

"There’s probably no detachment in the country that is at 100 per cent staffing levels other than maybe small, like three, two man posts,” he said.

He said that detachments at or close to 100 per cent capacity would be told to release officers to other detachments who statistically look understaffed.

"Part of being in the RCMP is that we get to travel, we get to see the country, to work in different places. So it’s not fair to hold people that have served in Merritt for five or seven or 10 years that want a different opportunity. The right thing to do is to give them an opportunity somewhere else and allow them to transfer. And so that’s what we would do if we lost positions. So the reality is we wouldn’t be at 14. We would be down at 12 or 11.”

Having 11 or 12 officers wouldn't be enough to cover 24-hour service, which only came into effect after a community forum was held asking for more police service.

Despite the change to 24-hour policing, Merritt-based crime has been on the rise in the past five years.

"The reality is, (increased) crime rate can be just because of social issues,” Roda said. 'You look at COVID and people lost jobs, and people were out of money. So it puts people into a harder position where maybe they’re drinking more and they’re committing crime, like violent crime.”

He said that the factors of a crime rate increase are not necessarily all within the RCMP's control and without 24-hour policing, the issue could be magnified further.

"Community dynamics change over time, and those dynamics can change crime rates.”

The City of Merritt is inviting the public to an open house hosted on Jan. 30. Participants will have the chance to voice their opinions on the upcoming budget.



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