St. Albert’s police force is recovering from a staffing crunch that saw job vacancies climb to nearly 30 per cent last year, said Insp. Ryan Comaniuk, the officer in charge of the detachment.
Some 14 new officers are in the process of transferring to the St. Albert RCMP. Since the start of June, two officers have arrived at the detachment, and one officer left.
“I'm anticipating by the fall we should see our resourcing levels normalized,” he said.
In April the detachment had just over 50 officers, far short of the 75-officer limit currently authorized.
“We're certainly not going to have all those positions occupied in terms of boots on the ground,” Comaniuk said. However, the detachment’s issues with “hard vacancies,” or positions left empty not because a staff member is on leave but because the role isn’t occupied, should be dealt with soon.
“We should be in a much better position in the fall to make sure that we've got enough officers to meet the needs of the community,” he said.
Officers are coming not only from Alberta, but also from Saskatchewan, the Northwest Territories and B.C. “We've even got two officers that are joining us from municipal police services,” one officer from Edmonton and another from Toronto, Comaniuk said.
The COVID-19 pandemic slowed police recruitment and created staffing issues in many regions, Comaniuk said.
The RCMP’s training academy wasn’t running at capacity prior to COVID and essentially shut down during the pandemic, he said.
“It has taken a while for these training academies and recruiting classes to ramp up,” he said. “St. Albert is considered to be a fairly desirable posting. We're considered a hub detachment for people that want to access city services.”
The staffing shortages have disrupted the detachment’s operational support units, such as its drug unit, crime reduction unit and victim services unit, as limited officers are shuffled around to complete general duty policing tasks.
“By default, it just results in an ‘all hands on deck’ approach in order to meet the minimal operational demands,” Comaniuk said.
Cst. Tyler Schryvers is a new face with the St. Albert RCMP. He joined the detachment in June and has nine years of experience in policing – almost three years with the RCMP and nearly seven years with the Edmonton Police Service (EPS).
“What drew me to St. Albert was the fact that it's close to Edmonton,” he said. “I've developed a particular skill set and a relation[ship] with the … Edmonton Police Service.”
“There aren't very many integrated units, but if that kind of platform was to develop further down the road, I would be one of the first to express huge interest in working closer with our counterparts with the [EPS].”
Formerly a patrol officer and a beat officer with the EPS, Schryvers works general duty for the St. Albert RCMP, patrolling the city and responding to calls from the public.
“[Being] able to assist by identifying people that I've routinely come across in Edmonton helps out with St. Albert files,” he said. “I anticipate that in the coming months and years I’ll be able to recognize clients that are heavy users of the resources with Edmonton.”
Differences between the EPS and RCMP are minimal, Schryvers said: a different computer report management system and a different pistol.
“We all enforce the same rules and regulations,” he said
He said he feels very fortunate to work in St. Albert.
Last November the city approved spots for an additional five police officers.
