The commanding officer of the RCMP detachment covering Terrace and area has great hopes for a program targetting repeat violent offenders but is concerned he may not have enough officers for it to be fully effective.
Speaking to Terrace city council May 8, Staff Sergeant Terry Gillespie said the RCMP now has a budget for surveillance operations involving overtime for officers, vehicles and equipment to watch violent offenders in case they repeat offences.
“Locally for us the issue will be capacity because I can’t even get the members to take all the overtime shifts we have at the detachment right now, just to keep the wheels on the watches,” he said.
“So to somehow say I can also get those members to do four overtime shifts each to target a repeat offender might be challenging. I still want to do it because the money’s there but I also have to be careful not to burn out our members.”
But Gillespie does hope that a corporal expected at the detachment this summer will be able to focus on repeat violent offenders in conjunction with a regional unit based in Terrace that consists of a Crown counsel prosecutor and a probation officer.
Terrace is now one of 12 hubs in the province where the province is placing people specifically to target repeat violent offenders.
The Crown counsel’s job in court “is to really hammer hard with the judge what this person is up to and making sure that they’re prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law so we can hopefully break that cycle of repeat offending,” Gillespie said.
First announced in March, the provincial government said it is putting $25 million into the program over the next three years.
While this program will concentrate on violent offenders, including those who threaten violence when committing crimes, the province has also announced programs to deal with people who commit non-violent crime due to substance abuse and mental health issues.
The shortage of RCMP officers at the detachment was a consistent theme of Gillespie’s with the staff sergeant saying the detachment recently hit a new low of operating at just 70 per cent capacity.
That capacity figure is now 74 per cent and long term staffing challenges remain, he said.
Still, Gillespie was optimistic that a range of recruiting and retention initiatives will be effective although it may take 18 months to see a change.
One incentive features the RCMP promising recruits a posting in a detachment in the area around their hometown upon completing training.
Gillespie’s presentation drew a high level of concern from mayor Sean Bujtas, who used the word “terrifying” to describe the shortage of officers.
“I don’t think this is a community that can afford it,” he said.
Bujtas took particular note when told officers from the crime reduction unit and the Indigenous policing position and the community policing position have been temporarily shifted elsewhere in the detachment.
Gillespie’s appearance was to present the detachment’s activity report for the first quarter of this year from January to March.
Some highlights:
- Police officers were a little less busy than for the same period last year but “we still have a lot of violent crime going on and it is increasing from last year,” said Gillespie.
- The detachment’s practice of preparing arguments in advance of court appearances of prolific offenders is continuing. Two persons were kept in jail in the first quarter of this year after multiple breaches of court-ordered conditions and multiple break and enters.
- Gillespie did say officers were frustrated with what happened to one person who appeared in court aftr being arrested for a breach of a court order and a break and enter. He had previously been ordered to reside at one location and although evicted from there, he was released only to breach his conditions immediately, Gillespie said. After more break and enters, he was arrested and finally held.
- Two corporals are being transferred to Terrace. One is to be in charge of the crime reduction unit but because it has been disbanded to fill holes elsewhere, the corporal will be acting alone. In any event, that person will immediately be placed in charge of the general investigative section because not having a supervisor there is more critical, said Gillespie. That will change, however, when the second corporal who is to be the permanent supervisor arrives.