RCMP Insp. Jesse Gilbert at a recent North Battleford city council meeting. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Angela Brown

Increasing presence

Town hopes to see more RCMP officers, increased police presence

Oct 12, 2023 | 12:00 PM

The Town of Battleford wants to see more RCMP members in the community for an increased presence to help deter crime.

Mayor Ames Leslie said the town shares the distinction of being one of the largest towns in the province and noted there is a bit of a tie between Battleford and another community for the distinction.

But Leslie said he is concerned Battleford has no dedicated RCMP members because it shares the rural officers with two RMs and the surrounding Indigenous communities.

He hopes the RCMP can help.

“We’re grateful for [RCMP] Inspector Gilbert to find these [opportunities] to get more members. Arguably, the town Is the largest town in the province,” he said.

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RCMP Inspector Jesse Gilbert said it can be challenging for rural police because they have a larger area to cover.

“You are well aware of how big the space is,” Gilbert said. “That can be a challenge for us sometimes. We’re definitely committed to working with them [the town] in trying to see what we can do to address that.”

“It essentially will come down to a conversation between the town and the province as to whether there is going to be a desire to increase the amount of positions dedicated to rural policing here,” he added.

In the interim, the RCMP are looking into accessing resources that aren’t specifically focused on North Battleford, such as the General Investigation Section or the Traffic Services Units.

“There is a couple of people posted here in the Battlefords. They don’t report to me, but they report to the division. But that unit has been very good at going into an area,” Gilbert said.

When it comes to policing numbers, Gilbert said now that the RCMP has another building, the former SLGA site in North Battleford, there might be more opportunities to vie for more officers.

“It’s been something we really haven’t been able to compete with much in the past, simply because of the space restrictions,” he said. “A lot of positions are created not specifically for front-line operational policing, but like Indigenous policing, recruiting, units like that. They would tend to go to Prince Albert, Saskatoon or Regina because they have the ability to house them there.

“However, with the addition of the new building, that would give us the chance to compete for those positions too if they are being created, for me to be able to say: ‘We would like that to be hosted in North Battleford.’ So, [for] long-term plans, that is certainly the direction that we’re heading in,” Gilbert added.

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow