Vermilion RCMP is ringing in a successful year of policing.
Sgt. Corey Buckingham, Vermilion RCMP detachment commander, presented to Vermilion council on June 24. The presentation updated council on the priorities and activities of the RCMP in Q4, running from January to March.
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Buckingham outlined the RCMP’s goals for the year and how they achieved them, while speaking to RCMP activity in the province.
“While there has been some fire activity in the province, we haven’t been impacted,” said Buckingham. “We haven’t had to deploy any resources.”
He says while Alberta did play host to the G7 summit in Kananaskis, they did not deploy any resources to that event either.
RCMP set out a number of priorities for the year, including community relations, crime reduction and police visibility.
Through community priorities, the RCMP performed compliance or condition checks. The goal was to get 100 total in the year, with the Q4 update reporting 56 curfew checks, doubling their goal.
“We also had some good results from doing those checks,” said Buckingham. “Whether it’s offenders that were held accountable to their conditions, maybe spent some extra time in custody because of breaches, or they thought there was too much pressure on them, meaning they stayed home.”
He also said some individuals felt there was too much pressure on them so they left the area entirely.
“There is that communication piece. There’s awareness for wherever they’re going and they get notified so they can do the follow-up checks as they see fit,” said Buckingham.
Vermilion RCMP has also been engaged with the community, having hosted two town halls. One of them was in Innisfree and the other in Derwent.
RCMP also launched a new Facebook page aiming to have more communication with the public. They set a goal of 50 public communication, which includes media releases, Facebook posts, Voyent/RAVE alerts.
“We ended the year with 67, again, exceeding our goal,” said Buckingham.
The third priority was police visibility, which they set a goal of 360 documented vehicle stops, ending the year at 614. Two check stops were completed in Q4 bringing the total to seven for the year.
RCMP’s three priorities will remain the same. Some initiatives, however, will change.
“We’re going to stick with the same goal of 100 (curfew checks),” he said. “We feel we had some good success with that.
“The public communications piece, adjusting the goal from 50 to 52, so the goal is one per week.”
Check-stop initiatives will not be tracked moving forward.
“The check-stop initiatives, we’re going to drop,” said Buckingham. “Just because we didn’t feel it necessary to track those, we can still do them.”
Another priority moving forward for the RCMP will be related to spousal abuse, as they work to bring awareness to some of the different services available to people.
“We’ve seen an increase in our spousal abuse type files over the last couple years here,” said Buckingham. “One of our initiatives is also to do some sort of quarterly, whether it’s a media release or information-type session. We haven’t ironed out the specific details.”
Deputy Mayor Joshua Rayment applauded the RCMP for the work they’ve done.
“I think its great you guys have been exceeding all of your targets,” he said. “I hear nothing but positives about you guys around the community.”
Buckingham also announced his departure as detachment commander with his final day being June 27.
“I want to thank you, Corey, for how great it’s been to work with you over the last three and a half years,” said Rayment. “It’s been excellent. Thank you very much for attending and giving us your reports and being an excellent community member.”
At the detachment, there are currently nine established positions with seven working. Buckingham says there were eight working but with him vacating his position, that number is back to seven.
“The promotional process is in place to fill my position,” said Buckingham. “We have a vacant constable position that we haven’t had much luck with to this point.”
Cpl. Brittany Pegg will be the interim detachment commander.
Some promising news was also brought forward regarding the possibility of filling the vacant spots.
“I’ve received some kind of promising news that we’re going to have a K division go through Depot,” said Buckingham. “The hope is we’re going to see a troupe go to depot later this year and the entire troupe of up to 32 people will all be coming to K Division.”
He put in a request for additional members, which is currently going through the process.
“That workload analysis was basically updated in the spring,” said Buckingham. “From there, I completed my end of things, being a business case. The workload analysis, at least the wording they used, supported at least two additional positions.
“My ask was for four additional positions over the next couple years, along with an additional public servant position.”
He says the ask has moved to the district level.
“My understanding, that’s gone to district, it’s been supported at the district level and now it just goes up from that point,” said Buckingham. “It just comes down to funding from the province to fill those positions.”
Buckingham also reflected on his time in Vermilion.
“I’ve really enjoyed my time living and working here,” he said.
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