The St. Albert RCMP detachment's commanding officer has returned to work after a three-month leave of absence.
Insp. Ryan Comaniuk, who has been St. Albert's top cop for the past three years, told the Gazette his absence was a result of needing some time to reset.
“I was diagnosed with an occupational stress injury back in 2017, following a near-death experience while I was on duty,” Comaniuk said. “It has been manageable over the years; however, back in the fall in October, some symptoms of stress started to resurface, so I made the decision to take a break and get a reset.”
“Mental health is a funny thing; just when you think you have it under control, it can drag you down without notice.”
In 2015, Comaniuk was stationed in Whitecourt and in the spring, he, along with other officers, were in a jet boat patrolling the Athabasca River when the boat capsized.
“We still don't know how me and my other operator got through that, but we did,” he said. “It's something I'm much more comfortable talking about these days, and I'm getting much better at recognizing when stress starts to creep into my workspace.”
Given his responsibility as the local RCMP detachment's commanding officer, Comaniuk said it's extremely important that he's in a good frame of mind when it comes to decision-making and judgment calls.
“My officers depend on that,” he said. “So, if I'm not in a good frame of mind, it's just simply not fair to my team.”
“Three months goes by pretty quick, and I am in a much better frame of mind and I'm really happy to be back at the detachment.”
Comaniuk also wanted to share his appreciation for Staff Sgt. Dwayne Moore, who temporarily took the helm of St. Albert's detachment and who has since returned to his position as commanding officer of the Breton and Thorsby detachments.
“I really appreciate him stepping in, and for all accounts, he did a great job and kept everything moving forward while I was away,” Comaniuk said.
Looking at the year ahead, Comaniuk said “the elephant in the room” will continue to be the detachment's ongoing staffing issue.
For most of last year, the local detachment operated with an officer vacancy rate around 25 per cent, and as of just last month the vacancy rate stood at 24 per cent.
The vacancy rate is mainly a result of nearly a dozen officers being on medical or parental leave, while a handful of staffing positions remain unfilled.
That vacancy rate increases to almost 30 per cent when accounting for the additional five hard vacancies that were created when city council increased the RCMP's authorized force to 75 officers in November.
“That's going to be critical to help us augment our general duty or uniformed side of the house,” Comaniuk said. “I know these things don't happen quickly, but we're in a much better position at the St. Albert detachment than, not just RCMP, but even other police departments.”
“The situation is continuing to be concerning, but I'm quite confident that this increase will allow us to be quite nimble in terms of resourcing.”
When it comes to the detachment's policing priorities in 2024, Comaniuk said he expects the targets and focus areas to continue to be crime reduction, domestic violence, and mental health and vulnerable communities.
“I still maintain that we need to continue to invest in those areas,” he said. “I don't see that changing a lot here in the city.”
“Those three main pillars, I think, will be carried forward because they're good catch-alls. Crime prevention in itself is a lot to unpack, but there's a lot in there.”
