Justice Minister talks Alberta Police Force, downtown Lethbridge, investing/divesting in police

The idea, according to Schweitzer, is that the RCMP report to Ottawa and place a great emphasis on national policing, rather than provincial or local. A provincial police agency would be local and could focus on individual communities or regions.

“We do have amazing RCMP officers in our province where they’re really connected into the community, but sometimes, you get certain communities where there’s a huge transition in and out of the officers coming in from outside of Alberta where they don’t necessarily have a full context of the community.”

The ministry will spend the next year or so investigating matters such as the cost of switching law enforcement agencies.

There would have to be new training facilities and labs, some RCMP detachments would be bought by the provincial government, a large amount of administrative work would have to be done, and cancelling the contract with RCMP could prove to be costly.

At this time, moving to a provincial police force is only a recommendation. No formal decisions have been made just yet.

Issues in Southern Alberta

Even within the same province, some of the issues relating to crime, mental health, and drug use vary in each region.

Schweitzer told us that he understands these are very serious concerns in Southern Alberta, especially for areas like Lethbridge

“We’ve heard too from the City of Lethbridge concerns around the downtown and people not feeling safe in certain areas, so making sure we have a thoughtful approach to dealt with addictions and mental health issues and making sure as well that our justice system can adapt to that.”

Just this year, there have been a couple of significant announcements for supports for Lethbridge, including $11-million for a supportive housing project.

The minister has also heard from many rural communities that crime has risen in recent years.

That is why the government announced last fall another $286-million to bolster rural policing. So far, this has meant another 76 RCMP officers and 57 support positions will be added across the province.

Some residents are concerned about this though because it means they will have to pay more for law enforcement. Communities will contribute 10 per cent of policing costs in 2020, followed by 15 per cent in 2021, 20 per cent in 2022, and 30 per cent in 2023.

Courts

It also announced just a month ago that Lethbridge’s Derek G. Redman has been appointed as the Chief Judge for Alberta Provincial Court.

Schweitzer says he is excited to work with Redman, who will have a key role in enhancing the court system.

“On how we can modernize our courts to really deal with some of the root causes of crime and just be as efficient as possible. We still have fax machines we use in our court system.”

He believes the COVID-19 pandemic has created an opportunity to make many significant changes to the courts, including what he called more “geeky” things like modern techniques for filing and utilizing video technology.

Another significant announcement Schweitzer made for Lethbridge recently was that the city would be getting its own drug treatment court, a form of “alternative justice” such as rehabilitation programs for those whose crimes were likely caused as a result of substance addition.

“You can’t jail everybody to yourself get out of a problem, that doesn’t work. We have to make sure we’re dealing with the root cause of crime as well.”

Divesting in Policing

Many communities are looking to put more and more resources into areas like mental health, additions, and supports for those dealing with these issues. This can sometimes mean taking funds from one area and moving it elsewhere.

For example, at the beginning of July, the City of Edmonton signed an intent to redirect $11-million from policing to go towards housing and other prevention and community safety initiatives.

We asked Schweitzer what impact this could have on safety, especially if more communities divest funds away from police.

He simply responded by stating that these are decisions for city councils to make at the municipal level, not for him or the province.

Schweitzer believes it is important to have a “well-balanced approach” to tackling crime, which is what he claims the UCP have done so far.

by David Opinko / Justin Goulet

Justice Minister talks Alberta Police Force, downtown Lethbridge, investing/divesting in police

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