A shortage of new RCMP recruits means the city won’t be getting two more RCMP officers in 2013, as the force had requested.
Speaking to council, which was sitting as committee of the whole Thursday night as it debated the budget, RCMP detachment commander Insp. Kevin Murray told councillors they could defer the two new officers tagged for 2013 because it was unlikely St. Albert would be able to get those officers next year.
“We now currently do not believe we are able to expend this money if this case was approved,” Murray said. “We believe this can be pushed to 2014 and would welcome a motion to remove it from 2013.”
Coun. Wes Broadhead obliged by making such a motion. If passed, it would cut approximately $128,700 from the budget. Adding six new police officers over the next three years was deemed a critical item by city administration.
In a later interview, Murray said factors contributing to the detachment’s difficulty in finding more officers include strong demand for officers nationwide plus fewer officers passing through the force’s depot training program.
“There isn’t a week that goes by where I’m not in communication with the staffing people trying to fill our vacancies,” Murray said. “It’s not easy.”
Murray said he wants to focus instead on beefing up the city’s current complement of officers. While the city has budgeted for 56 officers, it really only has an average of 48 because of maternity/paternity leaves, long-term disability and the delays experienced when officers transfer to new communities, Murray said.
He wants to build up a “buffer” of five officers, which would theoretically increase the city’s complement to 61 officers, but given the historical pattern of absences, would mean the city would have 54 or 55 officers actually available.
“We need to build up those additional positions and try to work towards that,” Murray said. “What we’re trying to do is build up that cushion.”
But doing so would not be as expensive as has been previously believed. Councillors on Monday attended a briefing at the RCMP’s K Division headquarters in Edmonton, where they learned the city is only billed for the actual hours worked by the police officers who are available, not the number that are supposed to be working.
“(Council) only pays for the people who are working here,” Murray said.
He didn’t know if there would actually be four new officers available in 2014, if the case is pushed back, but said he has hope.
“It’s not that people don’t want to come to St. Albert,” he said. “We’re competing with everyone else and there are limited duration posts we need to maintain the numbers in.”
