Thinking about policing: Co-operation may still make sense for St. Albert

Not the St. Albert RCMP detachment, but you get the idea. Below: Not the Edmonton Police Service.

This column appeared in yesterday's edition of the Saint City News.

I have been given a stern talking to by an Edmonton traffic police officer. However, since I am pretty much the slowest driver in Alberta under the age of 90 and have managed to receive only two traffic tickets in more than 42 years almost constantly behind the wheel, it wasn’t about the speed of my driving.

Rather, this officer, who shall remain nameless to protect the blameless, objected to a passing comment in a recent Saint City News column, in which I suggested one argument against amalgamation with the city of Edmonton was the quality of policing we would receive. “For example,” I wrote, if St. Albert were an official part of the big smoke next door, “how many Edmonton police officers would replace our 51 RCMP constables? A dozen? Maybe 20?”

Now, just slow down there, Mister, said my friend the city police officer. Do you actually know what you’re talking about? He made a pretty persuasive case that I don’t.

OK, he said, so St. Albert has a 51-member RCMP detachment. How many Mounties do you think might be on duty on a typical weeknight? Often, he said, there may only be two officers available, or even just one. This turns out in fact to be true, although, as always in matters of the allocation of resources the situation may be more complicated than it appears to a layperson.

Still, as my friend the city police officer points out, with normal staffing of 15, no fewer than 10 officers are ever on duty, even in the wee hours, in an Edmonton policing division of comparable population to St. Albert.

As a result, he asserted, the Edmonton Police Service has a policy of responding to all disturbance calls at residences – something that doesn’t necessarily happen late at night in St. Albert and other communities that are policed by the RCMP. What’s more, he argued, EPS has more resources immediately at hand – police helicopters, police dogs and forensics experts – than do the Mounties.

Now, the point of this is neither to slam the RCMP nor to heap praise on EPS. I am no expert when it comes to policing, or for that matter such issues as the delivery of public transit or what kind of garbage pickup is most environmentally friendly and cost effective. My personal interaction with members of both police forces has been generally positive. I am well aware that there may be strong arguments – both pro and con – about the approaches to policing taken by both police forces.

Nor am I a proponent of amalgamation, as anyone who read my recent column on the topic could see.

But I do believe there are fields in which it makes sense for St. Albert to consider joining forces with other municipalities in the region to deliver the same or superior services to St. Albert taxpayers for a lower cost.

Police services might just be one of those areas. And one, moreover, where change could be delivered without goring a local ox – seeing as we contract our police services to a national organization that doubles as a provincial police force.

Another such area is public transit. Except on main commuting routes during prime commuting hours, public transit service within the city of St. Albert is very poor. It’s hard for me to believe that Edmonton Transit couldn’t do a better job. If nothing else, a month’s Edmonton Transit pass would save commuters a few dollars.

Our council and city administration shouldn’t let fear of amalgamation stand in the way of clear-eyed analysis of the best ways to save money and deliver good service to the people of St. Albert. Joint ventures with other municipalities to provide policing is one area we should consider. Public transit is another.

If we reject such ideas without even a look, mark my words, a political constituency favouring amalgamation with Edmonton will grow and prosper in this city.