Reeves praise rural policing program

A new government program aimed to reduce rural crime in Saskatchewan is being met with high praise from rural governments who have been calling for more visible police presence.

The Protection and Response Team (PRT), unveiled last week by the Ministry of Justice, will consist of 258 RCMP and municipal police officers, highway commercial vehicle enforcement officers and conservation officers. The armed officers will receive special training aimed to enhance the visible police presence in rural communities to deter criminals, reduce police response times to rural areas and crack down on drug trafficking on Saskatchewan highways. SGI is bearing the majority of the PRT’s $5.9 million price tag, with $1 million coming from the Ministry of Justice.

Don Fyrk, Reeve of the R.M. of Buckland, said he is excited to see the results of the PRT initiative because rural crime has become a major issue for his community. Thefts and break-ins are commonplace, Fyrk said, and nobody is immune.

“One of my councillors got up at five o’clock in the morning a couple of weeks ago and there was three guys in his yard. One was backing up to hook up to his boat and two were in the garage,” Fyrk said. “It makes everybody edgy. I know some people that are afraid to leave their properties.”

Fyrk said Buckland needs good police visibility and quick response times when someone calls for help, two areas where he said the RCMP are lacking. The community discussed contracting Prince Albert’s bylaw enforcement unit to serve their R.M. in an effort to improve visibility, Fyrk said, but now he hopes the PRT will be able to tackle that issue.

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“Anything that’s going to improve police services in our area, I’m all for it,” he said.

Ryan Scragg, Reeve of the R.M. of Garden River, said he supports the PRT initiative because it will lead to a more regular police presence in the R.M., which typically is only visited when officers are responding to a call. The community is currently policed by officers from the Prince Albert and Smeaton RCMP detachments, Scragg said, but because both are more than a half-hour’s drive away neither detachment has a quick response time and patrols are almost unheard of.

“I think at the end of the day the visibility is the main thing,” Scragg said. “If there’s going to be more boots on the ground out patrolling, it’s definitely going to help.”

Scragg said he understands rural communities will never have the same response times or police presence as cities, but that essentially leaves rural communities paying only for police to respond when they are called. With the PRT aiming to be more proactive in their policing tactics, Scragg said he expects them to have a real impact in deterring crime.

Editor’s Note: This story was updated at 7:46 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 29 to correct an error. A previous version identified Fyrk as the Reeve of Buckland.

Taylor.macpherson@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @TMacPhersonNews