Portage la Prairie public safety chair Colin Doyle gave an outline of the proposed Urban Police plan for the city at their last council meeting. He explains it's coming by way of a grant.

"This is very exciting," says Doyle. "It's actually just shy of $414 thousand and this is in addition to the Policing Envelope that we already receive. So, this I couldn't have come at a more perfect. I know crime is top of mind for everyone and this, kind of, coincides with our strategic plan that we are going to release shortly, as well as our community safety and well-being plan."

Doyle notes it's been six years that the basket funding for policing has been frozen by the province. Over that period, much has happened, including the unionization of the RCMP that increased costs for their services in municipalities.  

"This money definitely helps us cover some of those costs plus helps us look toward future projects,," says Doyle. "It makes a huge difference in everything from resources in addition to our current RCMP to things like community safety officers."

The urban policing concept is a newer program that we've never seen in Portage. Doyle describes it as more of a boots-on-the-ground manner of policing. 

"These officers are present in the community," continues Doyle. "They have a different role than the RCMP would have, but still a uniform presence within our community. They aren't RCMP. It's a provincial program. It's something that Portage is looking very closely at."

Doyle acknowledges this is in its infancy, especially seeing as Portage never had funding to even consider this in our city, but they're officially called community safety officers. 

"This is not a one-time funding," adds Doyle. "This is an ongoing funding and is in addition to the current funding that we are already receive."

 

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