St. Albert RCMP detachment commander Insp. Ryan Comaniuk said he was a bit surprised at the low turnout for last week’s St. Albert RCMP town hall.
“I was hoping to get some questions from the public. I was hoping to find out if there were any issues or concerns that people were wanting some more information on,” he said.
The virtual town hall took place on Feb. 17 and covered a range of topics, from detachment operations to the Crime Severity Index. The town hall was not well-attended for what is likely a variety of reasons.
Between five and seven people viewed the event as it was taking place on the city’s YouTube channel. From the start, there were issues with the link to the event not being put up on the city’s webpage at 6:30 p.m. when the event was set to start.
Comaniuk said they had not received a single question from the public despite asking for questions in advance.
“You’d figure with the city of almost 80,000 people that there would be a few that would have a question or want to express a concern about a policing matter, and I really tried to kind of open it up to anything,” he said.
However, Comaniuk said he can draw conclusions from the lack of public response as well. In general, it would seem the public is quite happy with policing services.
“I'm actually quite happy that there wasn't a mountain of questions and concerns that I had to sift through in preparation of last week's town hall,” he said.
Comaniuk said major events happening around Canada and the world may have also been a distraction.
“I think if you consider all of everything that's going on right now, [low public involvement] doesn't surprise me entirely,” he said.
The detachment had asked the public to send in questions by Feb. 10 so Comaniuk could research or consult with his team if the question was about something he was not familiar with. He had planned to tailor the presentation to questions.
The presentation began with an overview of the operational side of the detachment, which comprises of 70 regular members.
“So those are officers, both uniformed and plainclothes,” he said.
Comaniuk spoke about the five different units in the detachment and outlined what each one was responsible for.
The St. Albert RCMP has three main priorities, said Comaniuk.
“The first one is crime reduction. The second one is mental health and vulnerable communities. And the third is domestic violence and assaults,” he said.
The RCMP are running a number of initiatives based on those priorities, including crime prevention through environmental design.
“Design and physical use of space can reduce opportunities for crime … interior and exterior lighting, windows, doors, trees, and shrubs blocking sightlines, so, obvious type measures that homeowners and business owners can take to protect their property. We're engaged at that level,” he said.
Comaniuk also touched on the crime map that is published in The Gazette every second Wednesday.
“It provides a visual snapshot for people to see where criminal activity is taking place in the city at various times because as we all know, crime has no boundaries,” he said.
On the mental-health side of their priorities, Comaniuk said one of the initiatives includes a mental-health toolkit for officers to take when they are on patrol.
“When they're on patrol can have it in their vehicle and they can utilize that kit when they're dealing with somebody that's having a mental-health episode or someone in vulnerable communities,” he said.
From 2017 to 2021, St. Albert saw a 25-per-cent increase in mental-health calls. Comaniuk said they went from 102 calls for service in 2017 to 127 calls in 2021. However, they saw a 20-per-cent decrease from 2020 to 2021.
Comaniuk said in his view the number jumped in 2020 due to pandemic stress and the ways people were coping.
“I think that's just people adapting and finding ways to manage and deal with that increased stress from the pandemic,” he said.
Domestic violence, which is the third area of priority for the RCMP, saw similar numbers.
The RCMP had 136 domestic violence calls in 2017. That number increased by 15 per cent to 157 in 2021.
“But again, we can see a similarity with domestic violence and in the fact that in 2020, we had 180 calls for service. And in 2021, we only had 157, so that's a decrease of 13 per cent,” he said.
Comaniuk said the biggest thing he would like the community to know is about the RCMP's performance plan.
“I think the best bang for the public's buck is to just be aware of what our annual performance plan is because it really is the catch-all for all of the work that we're doing,” he said.
The plan can be found on the City of St. Albert’s YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htxlRftFgQ4&t=11s
Comaniuk hopes to have an in-person town hall in the fall.
