Kneehill County councillors accepted a Community Peace Officer (CPO) report of patrols conducted during road ban season that the vast majority of motorists obeyed the traffic rules. The report was presented during the June 28 regular meeting of council.
Debra Grosfield, manager protective services, presented councillors with several reports related to policing and bylaw enforcement, including a number of RCMP quarterly reports and Kneehill County’s public safety updates.
“Kneehill County has five RCMP detachments serving our area; Three Hills, Innisfail, Drumheller, Beiseker and Olds,” stated Grosfield in her memo to council.
“Four detachments provide quarterly reports that they have based on in relation to council’s priorities for our community. Innisfail provides reporting however is not applicable to Kneehill County as theirs is a very small area. We have included Kneehill County’s public safety activities as well.”
Grosfield explained that Kneehill County council previously provided the various RCMP detachments with priorities that councillors wanted police to focus on within the municipality.
“Kneehill County council’s priorities were set in January 2022 as rural crime prevention – enforcement and education, community safety through programs and workshops, presence in rural communities, building relationships and partnerships, road safety and working with Kneehill’s community peace officers in delivery of enforcement and education,” stated Grosfield.
During discussion Grosfield noted the RCMP detachments were reporting on January to March 2022, and she was hoping in the future the quarterly reports could be delivered more quickly than three months later.
She noted the RCMP included in the reports that they are participating in a body-worn camera project.
Grosfield also discussed the CPO report that included enforcement numbers from Jan. 1, 2022 to March 31, 2022 which included 32 stops under the provincial Traffic Safety Act and of those 27 were warnings, five were actual tickets, eight emergency management events and training, 10 bylaw and internal department calls in Kneehill County, 17 bylaw calls for other municipalities (Acme, Carbon, Linden, Trochu, Three Hills) and 20 school visits.
There were also nine road ban exemption requests received with seven permits issued, totalling about 80 loads.
It was reported that within the school resource program Officer Natalie Chubala has created a party plan guide that includes working with Alberta Addictions on school presentations. The Acme bylaw enforcement contract has changed to no longer include dedicated weekly patrols, but as a complaint driven basis.
In a chart submitted to councillors was information on patrols conducted from March 16 to May 16, road ban season, which noted CPOs monitored over 500 vehicles with just under 500 travelling at or under the posted speed limit. Only about 50 were speeding. Very small numbers of motorists ran a stop sign or were hauling an overload.
Councillors unanimously accepted the report as information.
Stu Salkeld
Local Journalism Initiative reporter
ECA Review
